Department for Transport

Railways: Repairs and Maintenance

Tom Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the average number of days of disrupted service from weekend engineering works in the last 12 months on rail lines in England comparable to the London to Ipswich service.

Huw Merriman: The comparison requested cannot be done at short notice as it takes time for the data to be created. Network Rail will write to the MP and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House. It is worth noting that it is difficult to make such a comparison. The Great Eastern Mainline (GEML) has 20 miles of four-track from London as far as Shenfield.

Railways: Freight

Martin Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to help mitigate the impact of industrial action in December 2022 on the rail freight sector in transporting commodities over the Christmas period.

Huw Merriman: Government continues to work closely with Network Rail (NR) and Freight Operating Companies (FOCs) to ensure as much freight as possible is able to continue to move throughout the industrial action planned over the Christmas period. We are ensuring that critical freight flows are prioritised and we continue to monitor the impacts on specific sectors, through our engagement with other Government Departments. During periods of industrial action, approximately 20% of rail freight services operate on strike days, returning to around 70% on the day after a strike.

High Speed 2 Line

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will list the HS2 trains which are going to service (a) Crewe, (b) Macclesfield, (c) Stafford, (d) Liverpool, (e) Edinburgh and (f) Glasgow.

Huw Merriman: In the indicative train service assumptions that inform the HS2 and NPR business cases, the following HS2 services will call at the stations below, once Phases 1, 2a and the Western Leg to Manchester are operational. No final decisions have been made on the train service that will run when HS2 becomes operational. These decisions will be taken nearer the time, drawing on advice from the West Coast Partnership and Network Rail, and will be subject to public consultation. Indicative for Crewe2 trains per hour from London to Liverpool1 train per hour from London to Lancaster2 trains per hour from Manchester to Birmingham (as part of NPR) Indicative for Macclesfield1 train per hour terminating from London. Indicative for Liverpool2 trains per hour terminating from London. Indicative for Glasgow1 train per hour terminating from London Edinburgh Based on the current scope in the High Speed Rail (Crewe-Manchester) Bill, following the removal of the Golborne Link, HS2 trains are no longer proposed to serve Edinburgh as part of the Phase 2b Western Leg indicative train service. Following the Union Connectivity Review, the Government is committed to looking again at alternatives which deliver similar benefits as the Golborne Link to Scotland, so long as these deliver for the taxpayer within the £96 billion envelope allocated for the Integrated Rail Plan. In the meantime, we are getting on with delivering the benefits of HS2 to Manchester by taking the rest of the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill forwards.

High Speed 2 Line: West Coast Main Line

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether Phase 2 of HS2 will reduce or increase capacity of the West Coast Main Line north of Birmingham.

Huw Merriman: HS2 will provide high-speed inter-city services on dedicated lines that will free up train paths and platforms on the West Coast Main Line, and generate much-needed additional network capacity for both passenger and freight services. The indicative train service assumptions that inform the HS2 and NPR business cases included HS2 services to several destinations on the north end of the West Coast Main Line that may free up conventional rail paths to those destinations. No final decisions have been made on the train service that will run when HS2 becomes operational. These decisions will be taken nearer the time, drawing on advice from the West Coast Partnership and Network Rail, and will be subject to public consultation.

High Speed 2 Line: Stafford

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what number of HS2 services are planned to (a) arrive at and (b) depart from Stafford station.

Huw Merriman: In the indicative train service assumptions that inform the business case, 1 train per hour in each direction will run between London and Macclesfield calling at Stafford, once Phases 1, 2a and the Western Leg to Manchester are operational. No final decisions have been made on the train service that will run when HS2 becomes operational. These decisions will be taken nearer the time, drawing on advice from the West Coast Partnership and Network Rail, and will be subject to public consultation.

High Speed 2 Line: Finance

Sir Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his department has made of the impact of inflation on the cost of HS2; and whether his Department plans to update the financial modelling.

Huw Merriman: Along with the rest of the construction sector and wider economy, HS2 is experiencing higher levels of inflation. This is creating pressures against HS2’s existing annual funding settlements, which we are working through following the Autumn Statement. The most recent position on HS2 was reported in the six monthly update to Parliament in October.

Railways: Lancashire

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of restoring the Burscough Curves.

Huw Merriman: The proposed Burscough Curves project was assessed as part of the Restoring Your Railway programme after a bid was made under the third round of the programme’s Ideas Fund. The assessment concluded that the project was not appropriate for funding through the Restoring Your Railway programme, however may be a strong candidate for future development. The feedback recommended that the Promoter, Lancashire County Council, re-submit a proposal through the Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline (RNEP) process.

Maritime UK

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has provided to Maritime UK’s Regional Cluster Organisations for the purposes of delivering the Maritime 2050 strategy. between January 2021 and July 2022.

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has provided to Maritime UK in each year since 2018-19.

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of Maritime UK’s funding is from (a) private and (b) public sources.

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what staffing support his Department has provided to Maritime UK by (a) hours and (b) full time equivalent headcount in each year since 2018-19.

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many hours officials from his Department have spent(a) attending and (b) helping to implement the policies of the National Council of Maritime UK in each year since 2019--20.

Mr Richard Holden: Maritime UK is a representative body for the UK maritime sector and is separate to government. Maritime UK are key delivery partners for our Maritime 2050 strategy. The Department for Transport provides no direct staffing support to Maritime UK and is unable to comment on Maritime UK’s overall accounts, including its sources of income.Since 2018, the Department for Transport has provided funding to Maritime UK in order to support delivery of a range of Maritime 2050 recommendations across the wider sector. These include work to improve diversity and inclusion in the industry, promote the sector internationally and improve maritime skills.Funding provided since 2018 (financial years April – April):- 2018/19: £29,390.40- 2019/20: £667,588- 2020/21: £25,920- 2021/22: £414,120- 2022/2023 YTD: £3,000In March 2021 the Department provided funding of £300,000 to Mersey Maritime to support the development of the Regional Maritime Cluster programme over a three-year period.The Maritime UK National Council is the governing body for Maritime UK and provides a forum for the sector to discuss the delivery of the joint government and industry Maritime 2050 strategy. Maritime 2050 underpins the work delivered across the Department for Transport, as discussed at the Transport Select Committee inquiry into Maritime 2050 this summer. The National Council takes place quarterly and is scheduled to last for two hours. DfT officials attend alongside officials from BEIS and DIT, to provide a short update on departmental business relevant to Maritime UK and to understand issues affecting the sector.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Newport Wafer Fab: Nexperia

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what process his Department followed to prepare the national security assessment prior to the Newport Wafer Fab divestment decision; and what evidence his Department received as part of that process.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy: Meters

Anne McLaughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December to Question 102949 on Energy: Meters, how many warrants have been issued to move non-smart meter energy customers to pre-payment meters in the UK since 1 January 2022.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy: Prices

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he is taking further steps to support consumers in response to increases to the energy price cap.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy: Prices

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he is taking further steps to support businesses in response to increases to the energy price cap.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with (a) Citizens Advice and (b) the End Fuel Poverty Coalition on forcible prepayment meter installations; and whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his Department's policies of trends in the numbers of forcible instillations.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the number of forcible prepayment meter installations on household debt levels.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the number of forcible prepayment meter installations on levels of fuel poverty.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the number of forcible prepayment meter installations on the smart meter rollout.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hydrogen: Production

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the preparedness of the planning system for the development of green hydrogen production facilities.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Hydrogen: Production

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase the production of low-carbon hydrogen in the UK.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Rented Housing: Energy

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions has he had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Levelling Up on enforcing the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards across the rented housing sector.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Green Deal Scheme

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many Green Deal projects are classified as live as of 8 December 2022.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

North Sea Oil: Shetland

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of rejecting proposals to develop the Rosebank oil field in favour of investment of renewable, reliable, and affordable energy sources.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Theft

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many of his Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

Kevin Hollinrake: Our records show the following devices were reported lost or stolen in each year in the last five years. The data was captured on 7th December 2022. BEIS have a policy for the controlled use of memory sticks. These are only permitted with a valid and approved business case and using authorised, hardware encrypted devices. Once approved, individual Directorates are responsible for controlling the memory sticks, therefore no figures on loss are held centrally. BEIS have a policy for the controlled use of external hard drives. These are only permitted with a valid and approved business case and using authorised, hardware encrypted devices. Once approved, individual Directorates are responsible for controlling the external hard drives, therefore no figures on loss are held centrally.2022a) Laptopb) Mobilec) Memory sticksd) External hard drivesLost 14148NilNilStolen1211NilNil2021a) Laptopb) Mobilec) Memory sticksd) External hard drivesLost 680NilNilStolen1411NilNil2020a) Laptopb) Mobilec) Memory sticksd) External hard drivesLost 1063NilNilStolen1812NilNil2019a) Laptopb) Mobilec) Memory sticksd) External hard drivesLost 16125NilNilStolen2832NilNil2018a) Laptopb) Mobilec) Memory sticksd) External hard drivesLost 627NilNilStolen65NilNil All departmental IT is fully security encrypted. The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries.

Postal Services and Railways: Strikes

Brandon Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of ongoing (a) rail and (b) postal strikes on small businesses.

Kevin Hollinrake: Strike action by its very nature is disruptive to the economy. That is why it should always be a last resort and the Government always encourages unions and employers to seek a resolution of disputes before strike action takes place. While the Government recognises the importance of the right to strike, we need to balance this against the need to protect the public and keep them safe. The Government is therefore reviewing our industrial relations legal framework to ensure that it gets this balance right. More details will be given in due course.

Royal Mail

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reviewing Royal Mail Group's governance arrangements.

Kevin Hollinrake: No such assessment has been made. As a private business, Royal Mail’s strategic decisions are matters for its Board and shareholders. The Government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s governance arrangements.

Royal Mail: Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Royal Mail on the financial position of the business.

Kevin Hollinrake: Ministers and officials meet with Royal Mail regularly to discuss a range of issues in its role as the universal postal service provider. Under the Postal Services Act 2011, Ofcom has powers to regulate the provision of a financially sustainable and efficient UK universal postal service. Ofcom operates a monitoring regime that seeks to identify any threats or risks to the universal postal service. It publishes an annual summary which includes an assessment of Royal Mail’s overall financial position:www.ofcom.org.uk/postal-services/information-for-the-postal-industry/monitoring_reports.

Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, what plans he has to (a) revoke, (b) replace or (c) retain the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government is committed to a consumer rights framework that protects consumers and drives consumer confidence, while minimising unnecessary costs to business. We will bring forward proposals to address Retained EU Law that impacts consumer protection using the powers in the bill or other available legislative instruments in due course.

Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, what plans he has to (a) revoke, (b) replace or (c) retain the Toys (Safety) Regulations 2011.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government is committed to ensuring toys sold in the UK are safe.Leaving the EU gives us an opportunity to make our own decisions regarding products placed on our market, including toys. The Retained EU law (Revocation and Reform) Bill will enable Government, via Parliament, to revoke, replace or retain EU regulation in favour of a more agile, home-grown approach.We will shortly publish a consultation on the product safety framework to support us in determining the best approach to retained EU law on toy safety.

Starlink: Broadband

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the business case for the Government's investment in Oneweb is affected by the decision to choose Starlink to trial broadband satellite connectivity.

Kevin Hollinrake: The business case for the Government’s investment in OneWeb is not affected by the recent Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announcement regarding some initial limited satellite broadband trials in the UK. The decision was based on the immediate availability of equipment that had a suitably unobtrusive size for the first trial sites and could be deployed quickly at low cost. DCMS remain in discussions with OneWeb on supporting more complex trial sites and expect that OneWeb equipment will be tested as part of this trial in the future.

Animal Experiments

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of phasing out animal experiments in science.

Kevin Hollinrake: The carefully regulated use of animals in scientific research remains necessary to protect humans and the wider environment. The Government's current approach is to ensure that the UK has a robust regulatory system for licensing animal studies and enforcing legal standards and to actively support and fund the development and dissemination of techniques that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs). This is achieved primarily through funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs). Since the NC3Rs was launched in 2004, it has committed £100 million in research to develop 3Rs technologies.

Clothing: Working Conditions

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions he has had with British retailers on the adequacy of working conditions in factories that produce clothing sold in the UK.

Kevin Hollinrake: Neither I, nor my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State have recently had discussions with British retailers regarding working conditions in the garment industry. I have, however, met with the Director of Labour Market Enforcement who I know is looking at some of these issues as part of her broader remit. I have asked her to keep me updated on this work.

Consumers: Protection

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department plan to take to improve consumer protection for victims of rogue traders who are no longer able to make contact in order to gain redress.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government will bring forward the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill in this session of Parliament. The legislation includes measures that will considerably strengthen the UK's consumer protection framework, such as introducing civil fines for traders that infringe consumer protection law. Furthermore, the Department funds the Citizens Advice consumer service, which provides advice on general consumer issues, online or by phone. They can provide help and information on consumer rights, how to find trusted traders, using Alternate Dispute Resolution, and making a claim in the court. They provide referrals to partner consumer organisations for additional help or enforcement, such as Trading Standards.

Small Businesses: Newcastle upon Tyne Central

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many SMEs in Newcastle Central constituency received Government funding for supporting 2022.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government recognises the impact rising prices are having on businesses. Businesses in Newcastle Central will have benefitted from the Government’s reversal of the National Insurance rise, saving SMEs approximately £4,200 on average, the cut to fuel duty for 12 months and raising the Employment Allowance to £5,000. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will protect SMEs from high energy costs over the winter. In addition, at the Autumn Statement, my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £13.6 billion of support for businesses over the next five years, reducing the burden of business rates for SMEs. The Government is also providing financial support through the Start Up loan scheme - 231 SMEs in Newcastle Central have received loans to the value of £2,593,220 as of October 2022.

Business: Newcastle upon Tyne Central

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with businesses in Newcastle Central constituency on the potential impact of the cost of living crisis on those businesses.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government recognises the impact rising prices are having on businesses, including those in Newcastle Central, and is engaging with businesses across the UK to understand these challenges and explore ways to mitigate them.­­The Government has reversed the National Insurance rise, saving SMEs £4,200 on average, cut fuel duty for 12 months and raised the Employment Allowance to £5,000. In addition, we have brought in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which is shielding businesses across the country from soaring energy prices, saving some around half of their wholesale energy costs.We have also announced £13.6 billion of support for businesses over the next five years, reducing the burden of business rates for SMEs.

Flexible Working: North East

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Millions of Britons to be able to request flexible working on day one of employment, published 5 December 2022, how many and what proportion of people undertake more than one job in (a) Newcastle and (b) the North East as of 6 December 2022; and what estimate he has made of how those numbers may change in the context of the right to request flexible working arrangements.

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to his Department’s press release, Millions of Britons to be able to request flexible working on day one of employment, published on 5 December 2022, if he will estimate the number and proportion of people in (a) Newcastle and (b) the North East who will work remotely as a result of the proposed legislation.

Kevin Hollinrake: The planned reform to the right to request flexible working will bring an estimated 2.2 million more employees in scope of the entitlement. This is based on the 2019 average number of people who had been employed for less than 26 weeks with their employer. The reform to the use of exclusivity clauses will ensure around 1.5 million low paid workers can top up their income by working multiple short-term contracts. We have made no assessment of the number and proportion of people undertaking more than one job or the number and proportion of people working remotely by region as a result of the proposed legislation.

Royal Mail

Sir James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has taken recent steps to help support (a) the universal service obligation held by and (b) the financial sustainability of Royal Mail.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government’s objective continues to be ensuring the provision of a sustainable, accessible, and affordable universal postal service. Ofcom is the independent regulator for postal services and it has the power and responsibility under the Postal Services Act 2011 to regulate the provision of a financially sustainable and efficient UK universal postal service. Ofcom has in place a monitoring regime that seeks to identify any threats or risks to the universal postal service and it publishes on its website an annual report summarising its monitoring programme which includes an assessment of Royal Mail’s overall financial position:www.ofcom.org.uk/postal-services/information-for-the-postal-industry/monitoring_reports.

Small Businesses: Leeds North West

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many SMEs in Leeds North West constituency have received Government funding for support in 2022.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government recognises the impact rising prices are having on businesses.Businesses in Leeds North West will have benefitted from the Government’s reversal of the National Insurance rise, saving SMEs approximately £4,200 on average, the cut to fuel duty for 12 months and raising the Employment Allowance to £5,000. In addition, we have brought in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme to protect SMEs from high energy costs over the winter.The Government is also providing financial support through the Start Up loan scheme - 138 SMEs in Leeds North West have received loans to the value of £1,447,433 as of October 2022.

Business: Leeds North West

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with businesses in Leeds North West constituency on the potential impact of the cost of living crisis on those businesses.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government recognises the impact rising prices are having on businesses, including those in Leeds North West, and is engaging with businesses across the UK to understand these challenges and explore ways to mitigate them.­­The Government has reversed the National Insurance rise, saving SMEs £4,200 on average, cut fuel duty for 12 months and raised the Employment Allowance to £5000. In addition, we have brought in the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which is shielding businesses across the country from soaring energy prices, saving some around half of their wholesale energy costs.We have also announced £13.6 billion of support for businesses over the next five years, reducing the burden of business rates for SMEs.

Industry: Leeds North West

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which industry in Leeds North West constituency receives the highest level of government investment.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Government does not collect data on industrial investment at constituency level. As part of the West Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, Leeds North West benefits from several streams of devolved funding, including £38m per annum to support local priorities and £83m through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. To support research, development and innovation, £373 million of UK Research and Innovation funding has been invested in West Yorkshire between 2019 and 2021, regional data is not yet available for UK Research and Innovation investment beyond this.

Research: Leeds North West

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what funding the Government has provided for research and development in Leeds North West constituency in the financial year 2022-23.

Kevin Hollinrake: Leeds Beckett University, which has a campus in the constituency, received £7,566,993 for the academic year in Quality-related research (QR) funding and Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) delivered through Research England. However, UK Research and Innovation do not yet have data for competitive grants in the current financial year 2022/23.

Business: Leeds North West

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an estimate of the number of businesses in Leeds North West constituency that are BME owned.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government does not hold regional information on the proportion of BME-owned businesses in Leeds North West. Government is aware of the challenges faced by ethnic minority businesses and is taking action to support them. Ministers regularly engage with ethnic minority business leaders and networks to better understand the issues facing themWe are working with stakeholders to agree interventions to improve access to finance. Since its launch (2012) the Start Up Loans programme has issued around 20% of its loans to Black, Asian, and Ethnic-minority business worth £183,308,132 We are also delivering actions set out in the Inclusive Britain report (2022), which aim to support ethnic minority entrepreneurs.

Business: Intellectual Property

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to discourage British businesses from undertaking commercial partnerships with companies known to infringe on intellectual property deliberately.

George Freeman: The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) works to ensure British businesses understand the impact of intellectual property infringement and can make informed decisions when entering into partnerships and collaborations, both domestically and internationally. The IPO has developed free digital resources to educate businesses about intellectual property and provides a programme of webinars and events. The IPO also works with business support providers across the UK to ensure IP guidance and support is integrated into their services, including through the IPO’s regional advisors.

Intellectual Property

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to protect UK intellectual property holders from unlicensed use of their IP globally.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government’s Counter-Infringement Strategy sets out its ambitions for intellectual property (IP) enforcement internationally.The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) works with multilateral bodies including the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to improve the prevention of, and enforcement action against, infringement of IP.The IPO also works bilaterally with countries including China, Brazil, and India, across North America, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Its IP Attaché Network supports UK businesses and improves IP protection in key export markets.

Newport Wafer Fab: Nexperia

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his officials visited the Newport Wafer Fab prior to the announcement of the divestment decision.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: On 9 May 2022, Government officials with expertise in the semiconductor sector visited the facility and met representatives of Nexperia. The Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy called in the acquisition and began the assessment process on 25 May 2022. As is required under the National Security and Investment Act, the Secretary of State considered all representations made by the company when making the Final Order.

Newport Wafer Fab: Nexperia

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he considered evidence (a) that the UK and Welsh Governments (i) were aware in advance of and (ii) raised no objections to the acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab by Nexperia and (b) of the level of investment by Nexperia into the Water Fab since its acquisition when making his decision on divestment.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The National Security and Investment Act was not in force when the original acquisition took place in 2021. The Secretary of State used retrospective powers to call-in and assess the acquisition under the Act. The Secretary of State takes decisions under the Act in a quasi-judicial capacity, based on the facts and evidence presented to him. The Act only allows the Secretary of State to make a Final Order to prevent, remedy or mitigate risks to national security, and not for wider political or economic reasons. As you’d expect, I’m unable to comment on the details of national security assessments.

Northern Ireland Office

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to provide increased financial support to people living in Northern Ireland represented by the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign in the context of the rising cost of living.

Mr Steve Baker: Social security, state pensions and child maintenance are transferred matters in Northern Ireland.However, the UK Government has taken decisive action to support the people of Northern Ireland with the cost of living. The one-off Cost of Living Payments announced in May will also be delivered UK-wide, and includes up to £650 for those on means-tested benefits, £300 for pensioners, and £150 for those in receipt of eligible disability benefits.

Veterinary Medicine: Northern Ireland

Dr Neil Hudson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure adequate (a) access to and (b) supplies of veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland.

Mr Steve Baker: We would like to reach a negotiated agreement with the EU that would safeguard the supply of veterinary medicines and vaccines to Northern Ireland. If that is not possible, we reserve the right to take action to ensure that farmers and pet owners in Northern Ireland can continue to access the veterinary medicines and vaccines they need for their animals.

Department of Health and Social Care

Members: Correspondence

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter of 3 November 2022 from the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton and others on an Independent Review of alcohol harm.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services: Autism and Learning Disability

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) autistic people and (b) people with learning disabilities were in long-term segregation on 6 December 2022.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Finance

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2022, published on 17 November 2022, CP 751, in what areas the additional £3.3 billion of funding for the NHS will be spent.

Will Quince: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Department of Health and Social Care: Written Questions

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care when he plans to provide a substantive answer to Question 97476, tabled by the Rt hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury on 28 November for answer on 1 December.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Infant Foods: Costs

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of Healthy Start vouchers for funding the cost of infant formula.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Infant Foods: Costs

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the average cost of safely feeding a baby requiring infant formula for the first six months of its life.

Neil O'Brien: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

HIV Infection: Drugs

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to improve access to PrEP for women.

Neil O'Brien: We are considering how equitable access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can continue to be improved for all groups, including women and in settings outside specialist sexual health services. We are gathering evidence to understand why some population groups which would benefit from PrEP are under-represented and to identify potential barriers to access. This evidence will be considered by the PrEP Access and Equity Task and Finish group and will inform the development of a plan to improve PrEP access and equity.

Infant Foods

Mick Whitley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that families which use infant formula and are facing food poverty are able to access enough formula to safely feed their families.

Neil O'Brien: The Healthy Start scheme can be used to buy or towards the cost of, fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried and tinned pulses, plain cow’s milk and infant formula.

Prescriptions: Pregnancy

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that women who (a) are pregnant and (b) have given birth in the last 12 months are aware that they can apply for maternity exemption certificates.

Neil O'Brien: The NHS Business Services Authority promotes maternity exemption certificates and information is provided via NHS.UK. The certificates are also promoted through social media, online resources, media releases and through healthcare bulletins. Healthcare professionals, such as midwives and general practitioners, apply for maternity exemption certificates on behalf of the patient and ensure that individuals are aware of the entitlement. Some patients entitled to a maternity exemption certificate may already hold an exemption for another reason, such as an eligible medical condition or through the NHS Low Income Scheme.

Animal Feed (Composition, Marketing and Use) (England) Regulations 2015

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, what plans he has to (a) revoke, (b) replace or (c) retain the Animal Feed (Composition, Marketing and Use) (England) Regulations 2015.

Neil O'Brien: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 December 2022 to Question 102910.

Health Services: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the Government will ensure there is synergy between the Women’s Health Strategy and the Sexual and Reproductive Health Action Plan.

Neil O'Brien: We will set out plans to improve sexual and reproductive health in England in due course, which will be aligned with the Women’s Health Strategy.

Nutrition: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, what plans he has to (a) revoke, (b) replace or (c) retain Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.

Neil O'Brien: Through the Retained EU Law (Reform and Revocation) Bill, the Government is considering which retained European Union legislation should be repealed, reformed or preserved. Any such reforms will not alter the United Kingdom’s high standards. The Government will continue to work with a range of organisations and stakeholders to ensure that patient safety and public health are maintained.

Integrated Care Boards: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that his Department's delivery targets enable Integrated care boards to address wider health system challenges.

Helen Whately: The Department and NHS England have established a legislative framework and prioritisation and oversight arrangements to enable integrated care boards to work with partners to improve health outcomes. We have also commissioned an independent review of further support for integrated care systems, which will also consider the role of delivery targets.

Integrated Care Boards: Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that pharmacists are represented on integrated care boards.

Helen Whately: The Health and Care Act 2022 sets out the minimum membership requirement of integrated care boards (ICBs), which includes representatives from National Health Service trusts, primary care and local authorities. However, by agreement ICBs can exceed the legislative minimum requirements to address local needs, which may include representation from pharmacists.

Liver Cancer: Screening

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the use of fibrosis assessments in primary and community care to help improve the identification of high-risk groups for liver cancer surveillance.

Helen Whately: Community Liver Health Checks are being funded across 12 areas to identify patients with cirrhosis and advanced fibrosis, both of which are risk factors for hepatocellular carcinomas. These pilots will ensure that more people at high risk of HCC are referred onto, and continue to engage with, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended 6-monthly liver surveillance by ultrasound. Many of the patients identified by this route will also receive lifestyle advice and support which aims to reduce future cancer incidence. From June to November 2022, over 4,000 fibroscans have been delivered through the pilots, from which 494 people have been found to have cirrhosis or advanced fibrosis.

Cystic Fibrosis: Cost of Living

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increases in the cost of living on people with (a) cystic fibrosis and (b) other long-term conditions.

Helen Whately: The Government is providing £37 billion to support households and businesses, including £15 billion for the most vulnerable. A further £26 billion will provide support to the most vulnerable households in 2023/24.

Integrated Care Boards: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that Integrated care boards can create strategies independently.

Helen Whately: Integrated care partnerships are required to prepare an integrated care strategy, supported by statutory guidance published in July 2022. Integrated care boards are required to produce joint forward plans with partner National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts and NHS England will publish guidance shortly.

Integrated Care Boards: Health Professions

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of clinical staff involvement in integrated care boards.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the levels of representation from the mental health sector on Integrated care boards.

Helen Whately: No specific assessment has been made. The Health and Care Act 2022 sets out the minimum membership requirements of integrated care boards, which includes representatives from National Health Service trusts, primary care and local authorities. However, by agreement local areas can make a specific assessment of local needs and exceed the legislative minimum requirements by including further representation from mental health sector and clinical engagement.

Integrated Care Boards: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how he plans to assess the quality and effectiveness of the strategies of integrated care boards.

Helen Whately: NHS England has a legal duty to annually assess the performance of ICBs in each financial year and publish a summary of its findings. The assessment will consider how successfully the ICB has contributed to the wider local strategic priorities of the integrated care system (ICS); how it has performed its statutory functions, including the discharge of its legal duties; and it has delivered against guidance on its functions provided by NHS England or the Department.

NHS: Protective Clothing

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his answer of 9 November to Question 61376 on Protective Clothing: Contracts, whether information on ongoing contract disputes relating to faulty PPE delivered during the pandemic is available for the first quarter of 2022/23.

Will Quince: As of the first quarter of 2022/23, the value of the investigations relating to 176 contracts was revised to £2.7 billion. We will provide further information on progress since Quarter 1 in due course.

Department of Health and Social Care: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department including predecessor Departments since 2010; for what (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for what (A) periods and (B) tasks.

Will Quince: This information is not held centrally in the format requested and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Medical Records: Data Protection

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the case of Dr S. Shashikanth and the decision not to share patient data with a primary care trust; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of enabling general practitioners to determine at a practice-level whether to share patient data across an integrated care system.

Will Quince: ‘Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data’, published in June 2022, prioritises appropriate data sharing across health, social care and public health systems to ensure patient safety. As of March 2022, all integrated care systems in England have implemented a basic shared care record, connecting National Health Service trusts and general practices.

Gynaecology: Waiting Lists

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of how many women have been waiting for gynaecological (a) appointments and (b) surgery for longer than (i) 52 and (ii) 104 weeks.

Will Quince: This information is not held in the format requested.

NHS: Databases

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of managing patient data, whether he has made an assessment of the suitability of Palantir Technologies on running the contract for the NHS Federated Data Platform; and if he will make statement.

Will Quince: NHS England is undertaking a fair and open process for the procurement of the Federated Data Platform. NHS England will issue a contract notice to inform the market and provide instructions for interested suppliers. For bidders to be invited to respond, NHS England’s selection questionnaire must be completed to allow identification of suitable suppliers.

Gynaecology: Waiting Lists

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have been on the waiting list for gynaecology in each month since January 2020.

Will Quince: The following table shows the number of patients on the waiting list for gynaecology treatment in each month from January 2020 to October 2022.January 2020284,369February 2020286,008March 2020276,705April 2020264,788May 2020260,039June 2020260,660July 2020274,031August 2020290,103September 2020302,349October 2020312,787November 2020320,063December 2020330,216January 2021341,335February 2021355,211March 2021374,342April 2021382,472May 2021392,919June 2021398,872July 2021407,585August 2021415,774September 2021422,357October 2021435,450November 2021438,703December 2021447,339January 2022456,938February 2022465,947March 2022481,083April 2022495,153May 2022511,105June 2022520,488July 2022530,707August 2022545,160September 2022549,281October 2022542,627 Note:It should be noted that when interpreting these data, account should be taken of providers which did not submit data in a given month.

Protective Clothing: Procurement

Brendan O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has taken recent action with ministerial colleagues to assess the extent to which contracts entered into by the UK government to procure PPE in the last five years represented value for money.

Will Quince: The Government Internal Audit Agency analysed the prices paid for individual products in the personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chain. This included 12 contracts where the Agency found a proportionate control environment which balanced the need to urgently procure PPE with the need to secure value for money.

Doctors: Juries

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of doctors being called up for jury service on the provision of healthcare.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made.

Prescription Drugs

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2022 to Question 93720 on Prescription Drugs, how many Standard Medicines Reviews were offered to (a) GP practices and (b) pharmacies in the last 12 months for which data are available; how many were accepted; and for what reason no specific estimate of the annual savings has been made.

Will Quince: While Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs) are not commissioned from pharmacies, from November 2021 to October 2022, 2,221,117 SMR appointments were booked in general practice. SMRs optimise patient care in a number of ways, including by reducing medicine wastage. However, no specific assessment has been made of this impact, as it is among a number of benefits. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has assessed the evidence for interventions to optimise the use of medicines in developing its guideline ‘Medicines optimisation: the safe and effective use of medicines to enable the best possible outcomes’, which has informed NHS England’s commissioning policy.

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust: Staff

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of staffing levels within Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Will Quince: While Structured Medication Reviews (SMRs) are not commissioned from pharmacies, from November 2021 to October 2022, 2,221,117 SMR appointments were booked in general practice. SMRs optimise patient care in a number of ways, including by reducing medicine wastage. However, no specific assessment has been made of this impact, as it is among a number of benefits. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has assessed the evidence for interventions to optimise the use of medicines in developing its guideline ‘Medicines optimisation: the safe and effective use of medicines to enable the best possible outcomes’, which has informed NHS England’s commissioning policy.

Department of Health and Social Care: Written Questions

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what percentage of instances of replies to written parliamentary questions does his department issue a holding answer indicating that it will not be possible to answer the question asked within the usual time period.

Will Quince: In the current Parliamentary session, 1,123 of 2,441 or 46% of written questions for answer on a Named Day tabled to the Department have received a holding reply. After unprecedented volumes of written questions during the pandemic, the Department has been increasing capacity to improve our performance in answering written questions in a timely way. In November 2022, 69.8% of written questions were answered on time by the Department.

Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to open the consultation on proposals to update the Nursing and Midwifery's Order.

Will Quince: On 24 March 2021, the Government published ‘Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public’, which consulted on proposals to reform the regulation of healthcare professionals and to introduce statutory regulation of anaesthesia associates and physician associates through the programme of regulatory reform. The Government plans to publish its response to the consultation shortly, which will provide further information on these reforms for the Nursing and Midwifery Council and other regulators.

Health Services: Weather

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that patients with medical conditions can access treatment for their conditions other than in Accident and Emergency departments this winter.

Will Quince: NHS England has invested an additional £50 million in NHS 111 in 2022/23 to increase the numbers of call handlers to direct patients to the most appropriate services. The National Health Service is recruiting staff in primary care, including care co-ordinators and social prescribing link workers. We have also committed to deliver a further million general practitioner (GP) appointments this winter in addition to £1.5 billion invested in 2020 to create an additional 50 million GP appointments by 2022. NHS England is increasing the use of virtual wards and providing additional support for patients with complex needs. Falls response services are being expanded to provide additional support in the community to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.

Surgery: Waiting Lists

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to ensure that steps to reduce the elective backlog do not create unsustainable workforce pressures on general practice.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years. The NHS will expand capacity through recruitment and retention in specific staff groups and sectors, including support for mental and physical health and wellbeing to meet local needs. We have committed to publishing a workforce plan next year, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years.

Dentistry: Training

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of dental training places at UK universities and medical colleges for each year since 2015.

Will Quince: The following table shows information from the Office for Students (OfS) on the number of entrants and target intakes for dental training courses in each year since 2015/16. Academic yearEntrants and intakes to dental training*2015/167802016/178002017/188052018/198102019/208102020/208952021/22970 Source: OfS Medical and Dental Students Survey (2015-2021) Note:*figures are aggregated totals from OfS and may not match provider subtotals. 2021 entrants are based on initial figures and are likely to change.

Hospitals: Construction

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the next cohort of pathfinder hospitals as part of the New Hospital Programme will be built.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the funding and guidance for cohort 3 and 4 of the New Hospital Programme.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many sites have begun construction as part of the New Hospital Programme; and how many will begin over the next two years.

Will Quince: The Department and NHS England’s joint New Hospital Programme was provided with an initial £3.7 billion over the first four years of the programme to support the delivery of 40 hospitals by 2030. As this is an infrastructure project which will span a 10-year period, progress on the new hospitals will continue up until 2030. Cohort 3 is the first of the larger and more complex schemes. We are working with trusts to determine how elements of standardisation will be incorporated to deliver more efficient design and delivery. This will inform the next steps for progressing anticipated construction timescales. Cohort 4 are full adopters in the programme, benefiting from a centralised approach, standardised designs and modern methods of construction. We expect schemes in cohort 4 to be delivered in the latter half of the decade. Individual funding allocations for all schemes will be determined once a Full Business Case has been reviewed and agreed. Currently five of the 40 hospital schemes are under construction. We are expecting that another 10 schemes will start construction before end of 2024.

Clinical Trials

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to encourage collaboration between regulators, researchers and patients in order to improve clinical trial guidelines.

Will Quince: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is developing new clinical trial legislation aimed at streamlining clinical trial approvals, enabling innovation, enhancing transparency, and promoting patient and public involvement in trials. The MHRA is considering how best to ensure that, unless required on an emergency basis, guidance to accompany the new legislation will be co-developed with relevant external experts and stakeholders, including patients and trial participant.The Health Research Authority and the MHRA and have also made a commitment to collaborate with researchers and patients in developing the guidance that will accompany the new CT legislation.

NHS: Staff

Ms Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to carry out a consultation with representatives of (a) Parkinson's UK and (b) other third sector organisations on the NHS workforce plan.

Will Quince: The long term workforce plan is currently being developed by NHS England. They are engaging with a broad range of stakeholders in developing this plan including a range of third sector organisations.  The Government has committed to publishing a workforce plan next year and this will include independently-verified forecasts for the number of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed in five, 10 and 15 years’ time, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Children

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the capacity of NHS paediatric care services to deal with an increase in respiratory syncytial virus infections in winter 2022.

Will Quince: The National Health Service has existing plans in place, which includes mutual aid between hospitals and paediatric specialists. This includes monitoring and managing surges in paediatric respiratory infections such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Guidance for local trusts and a staffing framework to meet demand for inpatient care was published in 2021. The monoclonal antibody palivizumab is currently offered by the NHS each winter to high-risk children to prevent RSV, in line with guidance and eligibility issued by the Joint Community on Vaccines and Immunisation.

NHS: Pay

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of increasing public sector pay in line with the increase in inflation.

Will Quince: The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues relating to health and social care. We have accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Bodies in full, which saw the lowest earners receive an increase of 9.3%.

NHS: Strikes

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on forthcoming industrial action in the NHS; and what steps the Government is taking to help resolve this dispute.

Will Quince: The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues relating to health and social care. We have accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full. More than one million National Health Service staff, including the majority of nurses, paramedics and midwives, will benefit from a pay increase of at least £1,400, pro-rata for those working part time. We have committed to provide NHS staff a pay increase next year and we have asked the independent Pay Review Bodies for a recommendation for those staff in scope.

NHS: Databases

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timescale is for the implementation of the Federated Data Platform.

Will Quince: NHS England is currently undertaking the final stages of approvals to proceed with the procurement of the Federated Data Platform and the contract notice will be issued in due course. A contract award is anticipated in summer 2023.

Community Diagnostic Centres: Radiotherapy

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to deploy radiotherapy machines to new Community Diagnostic Centres.

Will Quince: There are no current plans to include radiotherapy services within community diagnostic hubs, as radiotherapy is used in the treatment of cancer rather than as a diagnostic test.

Health Services: International Cooperation

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what meeting he has held with his international counterparts to discuss improving international healthcare; and what further meetings he has planned on this matter.

Will Quince: On 23 November, my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care met with the South African Health Minister and signed an agreement on United Kingdom-South African cooperation on healthcare. On 29 November, the Secretary of State met with the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, to discuss how Ukraine and the UK can collaborate on healthcare issues. While there are no confirmed plans for further such meetings, there will be opportunities to discuss improving international healthcare in multilateral groups including the G7 and G20. The Department is working with other Governments to explore areas for international collaboration on health.

Southport and Formby Hospital: Accident and Emergency Departments

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of re-establishing a Children's accident and emergency service in Southport Hospital.

Will Quince: NHS England is working with Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and National Health Service commissioners to develop plans for emergency services for children at the Ormskirk site. Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust is undertaking a review of the workforce in emergency care pathways, including the children’s emergency service at Ormskirk.

NHS: Staff

Ms Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will outline a funding settlement alongside the NHS workforce plan when it is published, with particular reference to the workforce dealing with the treatment of Parkinson's Disease.

Will Quince: The Government has committed to publishing a workforce plan next year, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years, including for services for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Funding plans beyond the current Spending Review period will be subject to the outcome of future Spending Reviews.

NHS: Staff

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding settlement will support the forthcoming NHS workforce plan.

Will Quince: The Government has committed to publishing a workforce plan next year, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. Funding plans beyond the current Spending Review period will be subject to the outcome of future Spending Reviews.

Cannabis: Medical Treatments

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the cost implications for patients suffering from chronic pain of accessing private medicinal cannabis prescriptions.

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that patients suffering from chronic pain can access affordable prescriptions for medicinal cannabis.

Will Quince: The Government revised the law to allow specialist doctors to prescribe cannabis-based products, where clinically appropriate and in the best interests of patients. However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence does not recommend that cannabis-based medicines are offered to manage chronic pain due to lack of evidence on safety and efficacy and recommends further research. Until such evidence is available, no assessment can be made on cost effectiveness. The funding of private prescriptions is the responsibility of patients seeking those treatments.

Human Medicines Regulations 2012

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to (a) reform, (b) revoke or (c) retain the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.

Will Quince: Reforms to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 are progressing under the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021. The Act supports the United Kingdom’s ambitions for the Life Sciences sector through regulations to increase innovation and support the development of new medical technologies. This includes placing the Early Access to Medicines Scheme on a statutory basis, supporting the continued safe deployment of COVID-19 and flu vaccines, and consulting on proposals for a new regulatory framework to enable innovative medicines to be manufactured and delivered at the point of care. Through the Retained EU Law (Reform and Revocation) Bill, the Government is currently reviewing which retained European Union law should be repealed, reformed or preserved. The Government continues to work with a range of stakeholders to ensure that any such reforms maintain current standards in patient safety and public health. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is participating in the review of all retained EU law within its responsibilities.

Health Services: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Women's Health Strategy for England published 30 August 2022, what progress he been made on the study his Department commissioned on developing and validating a patient-reported outcome measure for patients being treated for pelvic floor disorders to inform clinical effectiveness trial.

Maria Caulfield: The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has funded a study to develop and validate a patient-reported outcome measure for those treated for pelvic floor disorders to inform clinical effectiveness trials. The study is expected to commence in February 2023.

Hormones: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 66 of the Women's Health Strategy for England, published on 30 August 2022, whether his Department has taken steps to encourage research on the use of FemTech apps to help women understand hormonal fluctuations.

Maria Caulfield: The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Subject to receiving high-quality applications, the NIHR expects to commission a new policy research unit dedicated to reproductive health to inform policy. An evaluation of health technology and apps for women has been identified as a potential topic for this unit. Applications are currently being reviewed, with the unit expected to operate from January 2024.

Health Education: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with the Secretary of State for Education since the publication of the Women’s Health Strategy on improving education and information provision on menstrual health and gynaecological conditions.

Maria Caulfield: We are working across Government to explore support for women and girls with menstrual and gynaecological conditions. Initial discussions have taken place with other Departments, including the Government Equalities Office. We will work with the Department for Education to improve the provision of high quality teaching resources. We have also appointed a Women’s Health Ambassador for England to raise the profile of women’s health and support implementation of the Strategy.

Genito-urinary Medicine: Females

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to address the siloed commissioning of women’s reproductive health services.

Maria Caulfield: The Women’s Health Strategy sets out a system-wide approach to women’s reproductive health, which supports individual choice and the development of local pathways to improve access to services, such as through women’s health hubs. The Strategy encourages local commissioners and providers to consider adopting these models of care. We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded Birmingham, RAND Europe and Cambridge Rapid Evaluation Centre to undertake scoping for an evaluation of existing women’s health hubs. This is expected to conclude in early 2023.

Menopause: Health Services

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of personalised menopause care within primary care settings.

Maria Caulfield: No specific assessment has been made. However, NHS England’s menopause pathway improvement programme aims to improve clinical menopause care in England via an optimal clinical pathway for primary care support to women during perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause. The programme has also developed an online factsheet with clinical experts and the Self Care Forum.

Maternity Services

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on the final pilot of the Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth collaboration.

Maria Caulfield: We are planning and developing implementation of the pilot and we aim for a national deployment of the collaboration in 2023.

Menopause: Health Education

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps has his Department is taking to improve education on (a) perimenopause and (b) menopause symptoms.

Maria Caulfield: The Department has invested over £3 million to support the teaching of the Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum, which includes information on the menopause. This includes online training modules for subject leads to train non-specialist teachers, an implementation guide and a ‘train the trainer’ programme delivered by lead teaching schools.

Dementia: Diagnosis

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of dementia diagnosis service capacity in (a) York and (b) nationally.

Helen Whately: No formal assessment has been made.

Medical Treatments: Energy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an estimate of the number of people who are on pre-payment meters and (a) use medical devices at home which are energy dependent and (b) need medicines to be stored in fridges.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is taking to help people who are using pre-payment meters and (a) use energy dependent medical equipment and (b) need to store medication in fridges.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of the average cost of running an energy dependent piece of medical equipment in the home; and whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of Government grants at covering these costs.

Helen Whately: No specific estimate or assessment has been made. However, the Government’s cost of living support includes £15 billion available for the most vulnerable. Specific National Health Services specialised services also grant financial rebates for energy costs, including home oxygen concentrators and home dialysis machines. NHS England is working with regional teams and integrated care systems to identify funding to address increases in the costs associated with operating medical equipment in the home. Local authorities can also provide support.

Visual Impairment

Sarah Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in the UK suffer from Myopia Nystagmus.

Sarah Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many individuals are provided with publicly-funded support for glasses associated with the Myopia Nystagmus condition as of 6 December 2022.

Sarah Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding is spent on providing glasses for patients with the myopia nystagmus condition annually.

Neil O'Brien: The information requested is not held centrally.

Prescriptions: Pregnancy

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of maternity exemption certificates that were issued in 2021 in (a) England and (b) Wirral.

Maria Caulfield: In 2021, 461,226 maternity exemption certificates were issued in England and 1,736 were issued in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Prescriptions: Pregnancy

Margaret Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to backdate maternity exemption certificates by more than one month from the date of the application.

Maria Caulfield: There are no current plans. The National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2015 states that a maternity exemption certificate (Matex) must be backdated one month before the date on which the application is received by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who are delegated to process applications for Matex certificates on behalf of the Secretary of State. The application process requires that a health care professional such as a midwife or a GP must authorise the application to confirm the patient’s pregnancy and expected due date. The NHS BSA must then issue the Matex on this basis.

Health Services: Autism and Learning Disability

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) autistic people and (b) people with learning disabilities were placed in an inpatient unit rated as inadequate by the Care Quality Commission in the last 12 months.

Maria Caulfield: This information is not held centrally. However, as of 31 October 2022 there were 170 people with a learning disability and autistic people in hospital settings with a rating of inadequate listed by the Care Quality Commission. Many of these patients will have been placed in these sites prior to the inadequate rating.

Wales Office

Wales Office: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what the (a) nature and (b) value was of all contracts, consultancies or other services placed with the accountancy firms (i) Deloitte & Touche, (ii) Ernst & Young, (iii) KPMG and (iv) PricewaterhouseCoopers each year since 2010-11 by the Office.

Dr James Davies: None. The Office of the Secretary of State for Wales has not placed any contracts with A) Deloitte & Touche, (B) Ernst & Young, (C) KPMG and (D) PricewaterhouseCoopers in the period 2010-11 to date.

Department for Education

Oak National Academy

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to safeguard the independence of the content and style of curriculum materials produced by the Oak National Academy.

Nick Gibb: As set out in Oak National Academy’s Framework Agreement, Oak will be operationally independent from the Department. The Department will not prescribe or approve the content of curriculum packages or educational resources.

Education: Coronavirus

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to mitigate the effects of covid-19 on children's education.

Nick Gibb: Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.The Department is focusing on recovering from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic through the delivery of a multi-year programme.The Department has made almost £5 billion available for education recovery in England. This includes up to £1.5 billion for the tutoring of children and young people aged 5 to 19, nearly £2 billion of direct funding to schools so that they can deliver evidence-based interventions based on pupil needs, £400 million to help provide training opportunities for teachers and early year practitioners and over £800 million to cover the cost of additional hours of teaching and learning for students aged 16 to 19.The Department’s education recovery funding exists in addition to Pupil Premium funding, which is worth over £2.6 billion in the 2022/23 financial year. This additional funding enables schools in England to provide extra support to improve the academic and personal achievements of disadvantaged pupils.The Autumn Statement has also provided a net increase of £2 billion in 2023/24 and a further £2 billion in 2024-25 in the core schools budget. These figures are over and above totals announced in the 2021 Spending Review. This brings the core schools budget to a total of £58.8 billion in the 2024/25 financial year. This will enable head teachers to continue to invest in the areas that the Department knows positively impacts educational attainment, including high quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most.Alongside this, the Schools White Paper sets out how the Department will deliver recovery, not just through its specific recovery investments, but through a wider programme of reforms.

Oak National Academy

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the impact on the commercial curriculum resources market of converting Oak National Academy to an arms-length body producing state-financed and endorsed curriculum materials.

Nick Gibb: As an integral part of the process to set up Oak National Academy as an arm’s length body, with close regard to Cabinet Office guidance, the Department produced a business case which included an assessment of potential market impact. This business case was published in early November. Monitoring market impact will be a priority throughout Oak National Academy’s lifetime and will be factored into the body’s ongoing evaluation and two year review.As an arm’s length body, Oak will receive Government funding through the Department. Oak will ensure alignment with the National Curriculum and have due regard to the Department’s non statutory curriculum guidance but is operationally independent of Government.

Oak National Academy

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to direct the Oak National Academy on children's learning about (a) society and (b) history.

Nick Gibb: Oak’s resources will be created independently, free to access, non-compulsory for schools to use, and evidence based. In creating curriculum packages and educational resources, Oak will ensure alignment with the National Curriculum, and have due regard to the Department’s non-statutory curriculum guidance. The Department does not prescribe how subjects, including society and history, should be taught but we expect schools to develop a curriculum that meets the need of their pupils.

Oak National Academy

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the potential loss of revenue for teacher authors from Oak National Academy spending on full curriculum resources.

Nick Gibb: The Government has set aside up to £43 million over the next three years to support Oak National Academy, a significant proportion of which is expected to be provided directly to schools, publishers, and other organisations for the creation of resources on behalf of Oak.Where Oak needs to use existing third party content, such as texts, Oak will seek to have an overarching licence with relevant licensing bodies wherever feasible, or direct relationships with rights holders where necessary, so the rights holder gets full payment for their work.

Financial Services: Primary Education

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of making financial education a statutory part of the primary curriculum.

Nick Gibb: The primary school curriculum includes financial education within the mathematics curriculum. A strong grasp of mathematics will underpin pupils’ ability to manage budgets and money, including, for example, using percentages. The mathematics curriculum also includes specific content regarding financial education, such as calculations with money.Primary schools can also teach financial education through citizenship. The Department has published a non-statutory citizenship curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2, to ensure that pupils are taught how to look after their money. There is also a wide range of resources available for schools, including the Money and Pension Service’s (MaPS) financial education guidance for primary and secondary schools in England: https://maps.org.uk/2021/11/11/financial-education-guidance-for-primary-and-secondary-schools-in-england/.The Department continues to work with MaPS and HM Treasury to consider the evidence and to explore opportunities to promote the importance of financial education to schools. The Department is currently working with MaPS on a series of joint financial education webinars during this academic year, to promote the importance of financial education to school leaders in primary and secondary schools and to build teachers’ confidence in this area.

Oak National Academy: Publishing

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what impact the Oak National Academy’s proposed creative commons licensing would have on teacher authors’ moral rights of (a) attribution and (b) integrity.

Nick Gibb: Oak National Academy has conducted the recent procurement on the basis of a non-commercial licence, but will be exploring the case for alternatives, including Open Government Licence and commercial licence. Some market testing indicated benefits to that approach.In considering a range of potential licensing arrangements Oak will ensure third party intellectual property rights will be respected.

Primary Education: Sleep

Mick Whitley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the impact of a child not having their own bed to sleep in on educational achievement in primary school.

Claire Coutinho: The department has not undertaken a specific assessment of the impact of a child not having their own bed to sleep in on their educational achievement in primary school, but we have evaluated the impact of poverty on educational outcomes.​Evidence shows that disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs are more likely to fall behind and need extra support to reach their full potential. That is why there is a range of support in place to support pupils, families, and schools.Overall, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 compared to the previous year. In 2022/23, the department will be allocating approximately £2,000 per pupil, for all pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years through the national funding formula, the pupil premium and the 2022-23 school supplementary grant together. The Pupil Premium enables schools to provide extra support for disadvantaged pupils to help improve their academic and personal achievements.The department is also investing in 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) where outcomes in literacy and numeracy are the poorest, where a package of measures will be implemented to drive school improvement and improve pupil outcomes.Providing support for vulnerable children and young people is a priority for this government. The department recognises the strain that families are under and will continue to work collaboratively with local areas to ensure children, young people and families have access to the support they need to recover from any negative effects of the pandemic and respond to cost of living pressures.The government spends over £1 billion annually delivering free meals to pupils in schools as we know that the provision of nutritious food ensures pupils are well nourished, develop healthy eating habits and can concentrate and learn. In addition, the department recently announced a further investment in the National School Breakfast Programme, extending the programme for another year until July 2024. Overall, we are investing up to £30 million in the programme, covering the period from July 2021 to July 2024. This funding will support up to 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas meaning that thousands of children from low-income families will be offered free nutritious breakfasts to better support their attainment, wellbeing, and readiness to learn.The department is also investing over £200 million a year in the holiday activities and food programme providing healthy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their heath, wellbeing and learning through the provision of healthy free meals, nutritional education, and physical activities on a daily basis.

Schools: Disadvantaged

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of expanding the eligibility for levelling-up premiums in Education Investment Areas to include teachers of (a) Design and Technology and (b) any other school subjects.

Nick Gibb: The Levelling Up Premium is worth up to £3,000 tax-free annually for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who work in disadvantaged schools, including in Education Investment Areas. The payments are designed to incentivise the recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects, particularly in the schools where they are needed most.It is targeted at these particular subjects because the department’s greatest priority is English Baccalaureate subjects which are experiencing teacher shortages. Offering financial incentives in these subjects supports teacher supply where schools are likely to devote the most teaching time.

Schools: Foetal Anticonvulsant Syndrome

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether extra funding is available for schools with pupils who have Fetal Valproate Spectrum Disorder.

Claire Coutinho: Local authorities allocate extra funding to mainstream schools through their local funding formula to allow them to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with Fetal Valproate Spectrum Disorder. Schools can attract further funding for those with complex needs from their local authority’s high needs budgets.For children with Fetal Valproate Spectrum Disorder who are educated in special schools, funding also comes from the local authorities’ high needs budgets.In the 2022 Autumn Statement, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor announced that the core schools budget, including funding for both mainstream and high needs schools, will increase by £2 billion in 2023/24 and £2 billion in 2024/25, over and above totals announced in the 2021 Autumn Budget and Spending Review. This will bring the core schools budget to a total of £58.8 billion in 2024/25. Within this, high needs funding will be rising to £10.1 billion in 2023/24. This represents an increase of over 50% from the 2019/20 allocations. This extra funding will help local authorities and schools with the increasing costs of supporting all children and young people with complex SEND.

Ministry of Justice

Witnesses: Privacy and Safety

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the level of risk posed to witnesses of non-violent crimes; and whether he has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on taking steps to help ensure that witnesses understand their right to anonymity.

Edward Argar: The government takes the matter of witness intimidation extremely seriously and there are specific offences to deal with it. Under the Witness Charter all witnesses receive an initial needs assessment from the police, which includes whether they are a vulnerable or intimidated witness and would benefit from special measures, including at the discretion of the court giving evidence behind screens or via a live video link to the court room.Furthermore, the police will also seek to identify whether a witness is at risk of intimidation. If a prosecution witness has suffered or is at risk of intimidation the police will inform the prosecution. If the witness has concerns about the granting of bail or if the defendant has a history of witness intimidation, the prosecution will consider what additional measures may be appropriate at the time the defendant is charged and throughout the period up to trial.Witnesses do not have a right to anonymity, but victims of sexual offences have automatic reporting restrictions prohibiting publication of their identity. Adult witnesses who are not the victims of a sexual offence but who experience fear and distress at the prospect of being publicly identified, may be eligible for reporting restrictions at the discretion of the court. In very exceptional circumstances witnesses may receive a witness anonymity order which can, to varying degrees determined by the order, hide the identity of the witness when giving evidence in open court. However, whether to grant such an order is a matter for the court and there is an extremely high threshold for doing so.

Ministry of Justice: Trade

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff in his Department have been allocated to deal with issues related to international trade in (a) each of the past five years and (b) the next two years; and if he will make a statement.

Mike Freer: Trade issues cut across many groups within the Ministry of Justice as we worked to ensure the best possible transition to an independent trading nation. It is therefore, not possible to provide a figure for the number of staff in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) that were allocated to deal with issues related to international trade in each of the past five years.At present, approximately 20 officials work fully, or in part, on international trade issues within the Department. Over the next two years, the MoJ will continue to allocate resource based on supporting the Department’s policy interests.

Prisons: Weapons

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) firearms, (b) bladed items and (c) other weapons have been found in prisons in each of the last five years.

Damian Hinds: We publish the number of incidents where weapons were found in prison in England and Wales in the HMPPS Annual Digest, the latest issue covering the period from April 2021 to March 2022. HMPPS also records the category of weapons found during these incidents:YearTotal weapon findsBlunt instrumentFirearmsKnife/bladed articleOther weapon2017-187,1571,145154,0892,1302018-199,7221,789215,3222,8342019-2011,2672,164216,2853,0282020-217,1781,599163,7531,9692021-228,0571,951263,9942,299Data Sources and QualityThese figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing returns but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level.Incidents where weapons were found in prison custody can include finds of multiple weapons; the figures in the table count the number of incidents where a weapon was found rather than the number of weapons.One incident can also include multiple types of weapons, so the sum of the individual types can exceed the total number of incidents. This also means that blunt instrument find incidents, which are a separate type, cannot be added into 'other weapon' find incidents without risk of double-counting some incidents.

Ministry of Justice: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department, including predecessor Departments, since 2010; for which (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for which (A) periods and (B) tasks.

Mike Freer: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Treasury

Energy: VAT

Sarah Olney: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of removing VAT from energy bills.

Victoria Atkins: The Energy Price Guarantee is a scheme that caps the unit price households pay for electricity and gas, which means that a typical household will have to pay bills equivalent to no more than £2500 a year on their energy bills this winter. This is expected to save consumers who use both gas and electricity around £900 this winter. The scheme as currently designed will last until 31 March 2023. As announced at this Autumn Statement, the EPG will increase to £3000 from April 2023 until April 2024. This new approach is expected to save around £14bn to April 2024, ensuring fiscal sustainability, whilst targeting support to those most in need. The Government recognises that families should not have to bear all of the VAT costs they incur to meet their needs, with domestic fuels such as gas, electricity and heating oil already subject to the reduced rate of VAT at 5 per cent of VAT. The Government's package of support to help households with their energy bills is more generous than an additional VAT cut on domestic fuel and power, and there would be no guarantee that suppliers would pass on the discounts from this relief to all customers.

Income Tax: Pensioners

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people above state pension age were paying income tax in each financial year from 2009-10 to 2021-22.

Victoria Atkins: The Government publish estimates of the number of Income Tax payers who are above the state pension age. This is available in National Statistics Table 2.1 Number of individual Income Tax payers available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/number-of-individual-income-taxpayers-by-marginal-rate-gender-and-age

Motor Vehicles: Taxation

Patrick Grady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment has he made of the potential impact on tax revenues of a pay-as-you-drive model of vehicle taxation.

James Cartlidge: All taxes remain under review. Any changes are considered and announced by the Chancellor at fiscal events.

Treasury: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department, including predecessor Departments, since 2010; for which (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for which (A) periods and (B) tasks.

James Cartlidge: The information is not held centrally in the requested format, and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

Individual Savings Accounts: Fees and Charges

Darren Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) reducing and (b) ending the penalty charge for early withdrawal from a lifetime ISA.

Andrew Griffith: The Lifetime ISA is intended to support younger people saving for their first home or for later life by offering a generous government bonus on up to £4,000 of savings each year. These funds, including the government bonus, can be used to purchase a first home up to the value of £450,000, or can be withdrawn in the case of terminal illness or from age 60. Any unauthorised withdrawals are subject to a 25% withdrawal charge. This recoups the government bonus, any interest or growth arising from it, and a proportion of the individual’s initial savings to discourage such withdrawals and protect the long-term nature of the account, which is intended to be used for the purposes set out above. The Government has no current plans to remove or reduce the LISA withdrawal charge. Doing so would not be consistent with the LISA’s purpose as a long-term savings product. However, the Government keeps all aspects of the savings tax regime under review.

Banks: Taxation

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a windfall tax on bank’s excess profits in a similar manner to the Energy Profits Levy.

Andrew Griffith: Banks already face two additional taxes. The Bank Corporation Tax Surcharge is an additional charge on banking profit above a set allowance, and the Bank Levy is charged on banks’ balance sheets with equity and liabilities over £20 billion. Since the introduction of the Bank Levy in 2011, these two taxes have raised over £37 billion in additional revenue from the banking sector.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Clothing: Manufacturing Industries

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure that garment workers from developing countries receive (a) minimum wage and (b) good working conditions.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK actively engages with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on country compliance with international labour standards as a permanent member of the ILO Governing Body and International Labour Conference. The Committee on the Application of Standards is integral to the ILO's supervisory system and the UK encourages all countries to abide by high labour standards. The "Work in Freedom" programme has supported 433,650 women and girls in the garment sector in South Asia and the Middle East with training and access to services since 2018.

Claudia Uruchurtu

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the British Embassy in Mexico City with the investigation into the presumed murder of Claudia Uruchurtu.

David Rutley: Our sympathies are with family of Claudia Uruchurtu who disappeared on the 26th March 2021. The Ambassador and the Embassy have been in regular contact with her family and have raised the case with senior representatives of the Federal government and the outgoing and incoming governments of the State of Oaxaca. On 7 December, the judge found four of those accused of the forced disappearance of Claudia to be guilty. They will be sentenced on 15 December. We remain in contact with the family and state authorities to ensure that due process continues to be followed.

Russia: Sanctions

Dr Kieran Mullan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy.

Leo Docherty: Sanctions imposed by the UK and its international partners are having deep and damaging consequences for Putin's ability to wage war. The UK alone has sanctioned more than 1,200 individuals and 120 entities and our restrictions on the Russian Central Bank have immobilised £275 billion, worth over 60% of Russia's foreign reserves. Russia is in recession and is expected to remain there next year. It will be Russia's longest recession for over 25 years. According to IMF forecasts, Russia's GDP will be 11% smaller in 2026 vs pre-invasion forecasts and won't return to its pre-invasion level until 2027 at the earliest.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Theft

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many of his Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

David Rutley: The following table includes the number of lost/stolen devices in FCDO in the last five years. 20182019202020212022Laptops3880484159Mobile phones14121374101167All departmental IT is fully security encrypted and no memory sticks or external hard drives are used with FCDO devices.The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries. Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated and the contents deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately and remotely locked.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department, including predecessor Departments, since 2010; for which (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for which (A) periods and (B) tasks.

David Rutley: The total number of people seconded between FCDO and the four listed organisations since 2010 is fewer than 10. Detail of individual tasks undertaken is not held centrally.Action 5 of the Declaration of Government Reform 2021 stated the Government's commitment to: "Develop a pipeline of secondments from the Civil Service into major organisations within the UK and internationally, including other governments, led by professions and departments, with support from Non-Executive Directors, as a core part of talent development".

Alaa Abdel Fattah

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) secure a consular visit to Alaa Abd el-Fattah and (b) help ensure regular meetings with that person's family on the progress being made on securing that visit.

David Rutley: Mr Alaa Abd El-Fattah obtained British Citizenship in December 2021. The Egyptian authorities have repeatedly stated that they do not recognise Mr El-Fattah's British nationality and continue to refuse consular access, which was first requested in December 2021. There have been frequent follow-up requests, including at the highest levels. The Prime Minister raised consular access when he spoke to President Sisi on 7 November, and the Foreign Secretary raised it with Foreign Minister Shoukry on 10 November. The Foreign Secretary spoke to Mr El-Fattah's family on 2 November. The Minister for North Africa has met them on a number of occasions, most recently on 5 December, and our Embassy in Cairo remain in regular contact.

Martha Chizuma

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the arrest of the Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Martha Chizuma, on 6 December 2022 on progress on tackling corruption in Malawi.

David Rutley: The UK strongly endorses the President of Malawi's demonstrable commitment to fight corruption in Malawi. The UK provides technical assistance to Malawian law enforcement agencies, such as the Anti-Corruption Bureau, to help increase their capacity to pursue cases linked to serious corruption. We note and welcome the rapid response of Malawian institutions to respond to the arrest of the Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Martha Chizuma.

Africa: International Relations

Dr Kieran Mullan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent diplomatic steps he has taken to support peace and stability across Africa.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Foreign Secretary recently engaged on these issues with President Ruto and CS Mutua in Kenya, Prime Minister Abiy in Ethiopia, and FM Pandor during the South African State Visit. He raised the conflict in DRC with President Tshisekedi and Rwandan FM Biruta and exchanged views with President Hassan Sheikh on Somali security and stability. At the Münster G7 meeting, he underlined the importance of G7 partners supporting African-led solutions. The majority of FCDO ODA in Sub-Saharan Africa is spent in Fragile and Conflict Affected States. The UK contribution to UN Peacekeeping Missions in Africa was £227.5m FY 2021/2.

Sierra Leone: Elections

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the President of Sierra Leone on the steps being taken to help ensure freedom and fairness in the forthcoming Presidential election in that country.

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made representations to the President of Sierra Leone to seek assurance that the police response to the violent scenes in the Sierra Leonean parliament on 23 November 2022 were not politically motivated.

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Commonwealth Secretary-General on deploying independent Commonwealth Observer Groups to Sierra Leone ahead of its presidential election.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: As a close friend of Sierra Leone, the UK holds regular, frank discussions with senior government interlocutors, international partners, and other key stakeholders, on good governance, the rule of law and stability, and the importance of a free, fair election in 2023. We condemn acts of political violence and urge all to work collaboratively to reduce tensions. I spoke with the President of Sierra Leone in London on 22 November 2022 about the importance of the upcoming election and Sierra Leone's democratic process. I [Minister Mitchell] reiterated this message in a meeting with the Minister of Basic and Senior Education at the PSVI conference on 28 November.

Malaria: Disease Control

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report by the World Health Organisation entitled World malaria report 2022, published on 8 December 2022.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The World Malaria Report 2022 reported that numbers of malaria cases and deaths remained broadly stable in 2021 following an increase in 2020, with 247 million cases and 619,000 deaths. The eleven WHO high burden countries have recorded modest positive results with deaths reducing from 445,000 to 428,000 and cases holding steady at 168 million compared to 165 million in 2020. On 12 December I gave the keynote speech at the UK Launch of the World Malaria Report.The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is the main channel for UK funding to address malaria. The UK is a long-standing supporter of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the third largest historic donor. The UK has pledged £1 billion to the Global Fund's seventh replenishment (2023-2025), which will help save over 1 million lives and avert over 28 million new infections across the three diseases. In addition to this the UK also supports research and development in to new tools to address malaria and provides bilateral support to malaria endemic countries to strengthen their health systems.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: India

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many UK-based staff from his Department have been deployed to the High Commission and relevant Consulates in India in each year since 2010.

David Rutley: Number of staff in India High Commission and Consulates: Time Period  Banded Number Mar-1470-79Mar-1560-69Mar-1650-59Mar-1750-59Mar-1850-59Mar-1950-59Mar-2050-59Mar-2140-49Mar-2240-49

Dominic Raab

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether any complaints of bullying were made by civil servants in his Department regarding the former Secretary of State between 24 July 2019 and 15 September 2021.

David Rutley: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given on 29 November to Question 88787.

Government Departments: Wines

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the value was of wine from the Government's wine cellar consumed in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21 and (d) 2021-22 to date.

David Rutley: The UK Government regularly hosts events to bring together stakeholders from across the country and around the world. The wine cellar is used by all government departments and is maintained to deliver events at a lower cost. For the Financial Years 2018-19 and 2019-20 the overall value of wines used was as outlined in the Bi-Annual Report on the GH Wine Cellar, placed in the Library of the House.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-hospitality-wine-cellar-bi-annual-statement-2018-to-2020/government-hospitality-wine-cellar-bi-annual-report-2018-to-2020.Historic expenditure on wine can be found here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100906.The value of wines used in FYs 2020-21 and 2021-22 has not yet been calculated and will be published in the next Bi-Annual Report on the Government Hospitality Wine Cellar 2020-2022, in due course.

Colombia: Prisoners' Release

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of President Gustavo Petro's decision to release around 230 young activists from prison after they were detained for their participation in the protests that took place in Colombia in 2021.

David Rutley: At the time of the protests, we raised our concerns with the relevant state actors in Colombia. We are clear that we support the right of all Colombians to protest peacefully, and that the right to peaceful assembly and association must be guaranteed. We continue to work closely with the UN Verification Mission and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, as well as the wider international community, in support of their efforts to reduce tensions and promote dialogue.

Females: Equality

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on advancing gender equality globally.

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions his counterparts in Commonwealth countries on advancing gender equality globally.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: As set out in our International Development Strategy the UK is committed to providing women and girls with the freedom they need to succeed, unlocking their future potential, educating girls, supporting their empowerment and protecting them against violence.The FCDO works closely with EU and Commonwealth counterparts at all levels to progress gender equality both bilaterally and in multilateral fora. For instance, the G7 2022 Communique makes multiple references to progressing gender equality and supporting the empowerment of women and girls. At the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Leaders adopted a Declaration for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women 2022-2030.https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/g7-foreign-ministers-meeting-in-germany-2022-communique/g7-foreign-ministers-meeting-in-germany-2022-communiquehttps://thecommonwealth.org/our-work/gender

Sierra Leone
: Politics and Government

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he discussed (a) freedom, fairness and peacefulness in the 2023 elections in Sierra Leone and (b) accountability for deaths relating to the violence in Sierra Leone on 10 August 2022 at his meeting with the President of Sierra Leone on 22 November 2022; and what other matters were discussed at this meeting.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: As a close friend of Sierra Leone, the UK holds regular, frank discussions with senior government interlocutors and other key stakeholders on good governance, the rule of law and stability, and the importance of a free, fair election in 2023. The Foreign Secretary spoke with the President of Sierra Leone in London on 22 November 2022 about the importance of the upcoming election and Sierra Leone's democratic process. In their meeting they also discussed the strength and history of our bilateral relationship, and opportunities for cooperation on mutual priorities of empowering women and girls, climate change, and education.

Development Aid: Genito-urinary Medicine and UN Population Fund

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Statistics on International Development: Final UK Aid Spend 2021, published 12 April 2022, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the trends in the level of funding for (a) reproductive health programmes and (b) the United Nations Population Fund's thematic programme.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is committed to promoting and defending comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and to working with our partners to drive progress. Family planning is an important part of our programming on reproductive health. At the 2017 Family Planning Summit, the UK committed to spend an average of £225 million on family planning each year to 2022. The UK has exceeded that commitment, spending an average of approximately £246 million on family planning every year between April 2017 and March 2022. The UK continue to be an important partner and significant funder of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).The FCDO works closely with HM Treasury to ensure that aid spend is directed towards our priorities in line with the International Development Strategy, meeting the UK Government's commitment to spend 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance until the fiscal situation allows a return to 0.7%. Comprehensive SRHR is integral to achieving the commitments in the International Development Strategy on women and girls and global health.

Development Aid: Genito-urinary Medicine

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will publish a detailed budget heading for sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is proud to defend and promote universal and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) alongside our partners. The UK International Development Strategy involves support for women and girls including comprehensive SRHR, and will guide aid prioritisation decisions. Comprehensive SRHR is central to achieving the commitments in the International Development Strategy on women and girls and global health, and the Government's manifesto commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns, and children by 2030.

Gender: Equality

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to advance gender equality globally.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO puts women and girls at the heart of its foreign and development policy. As set out in the International Development Strategy, the UK has prioritised action guided by the 3E's: 'Educating Girls, Empowering Women and Ending Violence against women and girls', including using our full range of levers to address the attempted global rollback on women's and girls' rights.As just one example, at the recent UN General Assembly Third Committee on Human Rights (https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/we-must-respect-the-bodily-autonomy-of-women-and-girls-throughout-their-lives-cross-regional-joint-statement-at-the-un-third-committee), the UK co-led a landmark joint statement with 71 signatory countries, committing to protect and promote Sexual, Reproductive Health and Rights, therefore showing strong UK leadership on gender equality.

Colombia: Politics and Government

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of reports of murders of social activists in Colombia.

David Rutley: Colombia is an FCDO Human Rights Priority Country, and we have provided longstanding support through our Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) programme to support at risk human rights defenders and victims and help tackle the root causes of the violence. We have committed over £3 million to specific human rights projects in Colombia since 2011. Our support focuses on improving access to justice, protecting human rights defenders, promoting media freedom, and preventing sexual violence in conflict. The UK also consistently raises our concerns regarding violence against human rights defenders and social leaders at the UN Security Council, as we did at meetings in October 2021 and on 20 January 2022. Recently I (David Rutley) visited Colombia where I held high level political talks with the Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva where I reiterated our support for the ongoing peace process. I [Minister Rutley] was also pleased to meet with Vice Foreign Minister Laura Gil at the London PSVI Conference and pledge our support for Colombia's National Action Plan against sexual violence. We continue to support efforts to improve the security and protection of human rights defenders and social activists through the UK's Conflict Stability and Security Fund.

Ministry of Defence

Guided Weapons

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the (a) in service and (b) out of service date for Maritime Brimstone.

Alex Chalk: Brimstone is not in service with the Royal Navy.

Ministry of Defence: Theft

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of his Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The following table includes the number of lost or stolen devices in the Ministry of Defence in the last five years. YearLaptopsMobile PhonesUSBsHard Disk Drives20181066983382019239106602520201637349242021 1487985272022 (up to 6 Dec)2751064838 All departmental IT is fully security encrypted.The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries.Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated, and the contents are deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately and remotely locked.

Guided Weapons

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) in service and (b) out of service date for Brimstone is.

Alex Chalk: The Brimstone missile first entered service with the Royal Air Force in 2005 and with upgrades is expected to remain in service to the end of the 2040s.

Guided Weapons

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the (a) in service and (b) out of service date for AMRAAM missiles.

Alex Chalk: AMRAAM first entered service with the UK Armed Forces in 1995 and with upgrades is expected to remain in service until the end of the next decade.

Veterans Welfare Service

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) veterans and (b) families of veterans contacted the Veteran Welfare Service requesting financial support in each month of (i) 2020, (ii) 2021, and (iii) 2022.

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) veterans and (b) families of veterans contacted Veterans UK requesting financial support in each month in each month of (i) 2020, (ii) 2021, and (iii) 2022.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The number of calls that led to assistance relating to financial support is not centrally held and could only be determined by interrogating each individual case file at disproportionate cost. An individual may be referred to the Veterans Welfare Service (VWS) for one issue and financial pressures become evident during the assessment. Where financial support is required the VWS can assist with benefits checks, completion of application forms and signposting to appropriate organisations.

Defence Business Services: Blackpool

Darren Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of moving the Defence Business Services Offices from Cheadle Hulme and Walker House to Blackpool; and what provisions his Department is making to support staff in that transition.

Alex Chalk: The decision to consolidate the Defence Business Services northwest estate in Blackpool was based on qualitative benefits and through life costs of potential sites based on several factors including operational risk, sustainability, and compliance with key user requirements. Agreement with the Unions has been reached that relocation will be treated as a non-standard move for all staff. This means that all staff including 'non-mobile' administrative grades and part-time staff will access the mover and fares packages. All staff will be able to apply for the associated allowances which can include move of house or excess fares in accordance with policy and Trade Union negotiation.

Russia: Armed Forces

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the morale of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine since October 2022.

James Heappey: Ukraine's Armed Forces continue to inflict significant losses on Russian forces.We assess that due to the extreme cold weather, lack of food, supplies and any kind of coherent command and control, morale amongst Russian military personnel continues to be generally awful.

Type 26 Frigates: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason his Department has estimated that the Type 26 Frigates programme has a total cost variation to completion of £259 million.

Alex Chalk: The Type 26 Frigate programme forecast cost increases were caused by a combination of contractor performance and supply chain issues, COVID-19 delays, and changes to risk and inflation estimates.

NATO: Ammunition

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with his Estonian counterpart on (a) the potential UK use of Estonia’s ammunition warehouse as part of the NATO Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative and (b) its potential to support the enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup in that country.

James Heappey: No recent discussions about the NATO Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative have taken place between the Secretary of State and his Estonian counterpart given that discussions are ongoing at officials’ level.

Guided Weapons

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) in service dates and (b) out of service dates are for the UK's multiple-launch rocket systems.

Alex Chalk: The requested information can be found below: In service date - 1990 Out of service date - 2050 As part of the Army’s modernisation programme the department has invested in the recapitalisation of our M270 tracked missile launcher system (that had an original in-service date of 1990) and various missile types to complement our current Guided Multi Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) munition stock. The Army’s current M270 launchers have now entered the recapitalisation process with a planned Initial Operating Capability of 2026. The recapitalised launchers have a planned out of service date of 2050.

Defence: Technology

Dr Kieran Mullan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to develop innovative defence technology.

Alex Chalk: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 12 December 2022 to Question 902724.Defence: Technology (docx, 21.7KB)

Defence: Employment

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support defence jobs in the UK.

Alex Chalk: The most recent estimate shows Ministry of Defence (MOD) investment supports 219,000 jobs in industries across the UK, including 141,000 direct jobs and 78,000 indirect jobs.Continued high and focussed investment in defence, along with the changes we are making as part of DSIS, means that the MOD is well placed to contribute to economic growth and Levelling Up across the Union.

Navy: Ports

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the viability of its maritime naval ports in the event of rising sea levels over the next 50 years.

Alex Chalk: The Ministry of Defence has undertaken extensive work to enable understanding of the risk that climate change, including rising sea levels, will have across the defence estate and its outputs.Resilience and mitigation planning is an important element of the Royal Navy's Climate Change and Sustainability Plan. The Royal Navy have assessed a range of climate risks and their potential impacts on its naval bases and is integrating the assessments into planning and works programmes to ensure that impacts are mitigated or minimised as far as possible.Details of these assessments are sensitive, therefore I am unable to comment further. To do so could prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

Antitank Missiles

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the (a) in service and (b) out of service date for Javelin.

Alex Chalk: The requested information can be found below: In service date - 2005 Out of service date - 2035

Shipbuilding

Dr Kieran Mullan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support British shipbuilding.

Alex Chalk: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9 June 2022 to Question 10012 to the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West (Stuart Anderson).Since then, we have launched the third round of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, committing £60 million. This is the largest ever government R&D investment into the UK commercial maritime sector. This is part of Department for Transport's £206 million investment in a UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions, which will match-fund private investment in the commercialisation of clean maritime technologies.The National Shipbuilding Office (NSO) which was created to drive the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh, has now been established as an Office of Department. It continues to engage with colleagues across Government and industry to promote growth across the entire UK shipbuilding sector.For example, the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce, led by the Department for Education, meets monthly to look at how we can ensure the UK's shipbuilding industry has a skilled workforce for the future. Working with representatives from across the shipbuilding industry, the NSO also leads on the Shipbuilding Enterprise for Growth which aims to tackle barriers to growth, boost exports and grow high-value skilled jobs across the UK shipbuilding enterprise.Shipbuilding (docx, 22.7KB)

Ministry of Defence: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department, including predecessor Departments, since 2010; for which (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for which (A) periods and (B) tasks.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The information is not centrally held and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Afghanistan: Refugees

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy applications have received decisions as of 16 November.

James Heappey: Between August 2021 and November 2022, over 8.800 decisions have been issued to principal applicants. It is important to note that issuing decisions to principal applicants will simultaneously close all duplicate applications that the principal may have also submitted. As such, the total number processed during this period will be significantly higher.

Ukraine: Armed Conflict

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the levels of depletion of stockpiles by the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine; and what assessment he has made of Russia's ability to continue to adequately supply its forces in Ukraine.

James Heappey: Russia's expenditure of its key military supplies, most especially munitions, has been exceptionally high due to the intensity of its combat operations. Russia is unlikely to succeed in significantly ramping up overall production to support operations in Ukraine or be able to rapidly reconstitute its equipment losses. The most prominent shortfalls are likely to be in the production of precision strike munitions and artillery ammunition.

Russia: Defence Equipment

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on UK based companies that have been found to be supplying components for Russian weapons programmes since February 2022.

James Heappey: We are aware of reports of UK manufactured components being found in Russian weapon systems. The Government have taken steps to impose the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions that Russia has ever faced, to maximise the impact on Russia's campaign in Ukraine and cut off funding for Putin's war machine, which includes prohibition of the export, supply and delivery and making available of restricted goods, software and technology and the provision of certain services related to the export or supply of these products. Should we become aware of potential breaches of UK export controls, we refer these cases to departments with enforcement powers.

Afghanistan: Refugees

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 22 September 2022 to Question 49058 on Afghanistan: Refugees, how many personnel have been assigned to work on the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme in each month since September 2022.

James Heappey: The data requested can be found in the below table: MonthARAP PersonnelSeptember100October89November108 These figures include both civilian and military staff assigned to work on the ARAP scheme, in the UK and overseas.

Ukraine: Armed Conflict

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has he made of the degree of involvement of Belarus in Russia’s war against Ukraine since February 2022.

James Heappey: Belarus has been a crucial enabler of Russia's prosecution of its war against Ukraine; Russian military forces invaded Northern Ukraine from Belarusian territory on 24 February 2022. Even after these forces were forced to withdraw in March, Belarus has continued to host Russian military forces, including aircraft and surface missiles that have continued to regularly launch strikes into Ukraine. The Lukashenko regime is being made to feel the consequences for its support for Putin. The government continues to hold the Belarusian regime to account for its facilitation of and ongoing support to Russia's illegal war in Ukraine.

Ukraine: Armed Conflict

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Protocol to the Treaty between Russia and Belarus on Joint Provision of Regional Security on Belarussian involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

James Heappey: The details of the Protocol signed on 3 December 2022 have not been made public. We assess it is likely that it envisages closer cooperation between the Armed Forces of the two countries including greater Belarusian logistical support for Russian Forces deployed in Belarus. The December 1997 Agreement is concerned with the management of the Russo-Belarusian regional grouping of forces.

NATO: Ammunition

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions his Department has had with NATO officials on potential involvement in the NATO Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative.

James Heappey: We are actively considering our position regarding UK participation in the NATO Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative (MAWI) and have registered interest in joining conversations with other interested Allies. We understand the potential merits of joining an initiative such as MAWI to Defence and Departmental officials continue to liaise with international counterparts on this and many other matters.

NATO: Ammunition

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the UK has not joined the NATO Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative.

James Heappey: We are actively considering our position regarding UK participation in the NATO Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative (MAWI) and have registered interest in joining conversations with other interested Allies. We understand the potential merits of joining an initiative such as MAWI to Defence and continue to liaise with international counterparts on this and many other matters.

Department for Work and Pensions

Department for Work and Pensions: Theft

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of his Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

Mims Davies: Please see the table provided for figures on lost or stolen computers and phones.  Information requested for memory sticks and external hard drives is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.Lost and stolen17/1818/1919/2020/2121/2222/23*Computers (laptops and Surface Pros)24405247140130Mobile Phones447592326760*up to end of November 2022All DWP mobile phones and laptops are password protected and encrypted in accordance with Data Protection guidelines.The figures provided combine lost and stolen items and do not include cases where items have been recovered. The majority of these losses/thefts occurred in home/office break-ins and whilst travelling. To put this in context, DWP is the largest government department employing over 82,000 staff and is a geographically dispersed organisation, with managers having responsibility for colleagues across a number of locations.

Universal Credit: Armed Forces

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 November 2022 to Question 72201 on Universal Credit: Veterans, how many Universal Credit claimants have been identified as (a) serving and (b) having served in the Armed Forces for the assessment periods ending in September 2022.

Guy Opperman: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) started collecting data on the Armed Forces status of Universal Credit (UC) claimants in Great Britain (GB) in April 2021. At first only new claimants were asked about their Armed Forces status. From June 2021 onwards, other UC claimants reporting changes in their work and earnings have also been able to report their status. From July 2021 onwards, UC agents have also been able to record claimants’ Armed Forces status if they are told about this via other means such as journal messages, face-to-face meetings or by telephone. Data coverage continues to improve over time and by September 2022 data was held on the armed forces status of approximately 54% of the GB UC caseload (see table below). It should be noted that Armed forces status is self-reported by claimants and is not verified by the Ministry of Defence or Office for Veterans’ Affairs. A claimant’s status can be recorded as “currently serving”, “served in the past”, “not served” or “prefer not to say”. Data is not collected on the specific branch of the Armed Forces that claimants are serving in or have served in in the past.Data is not held on the total number of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past, but data is held on those who have identified themselves so far. The way the data is collected means the claimants for whom an Armed Forces status is recorded are not representative of the UC caseload as a whole. This means it is not yet possible to produce reliable estimates of the overall number or proportion of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past. Increases in the numbers of claimants with a recorded status of “currently serving” or “served in the past” do not necessarily mean the overall numbers of claimants who are currently serving or have served in the past have increased and may reflect increases in the number of claimants for whom data is held as data coverage improves over time. The table below shows the proportion of the GB UC caseload with a recorded Armed Forces status. It also shows how many claimants on the caseload had a recorded status of each type. GB UC caseload by recorded Armed Forces status UC caseload monthProportion of caseload with a recorded statusCurrently servingServed in the pastNot servedPrefer not to saySeptember 202254%3,20041,4003,002,50022,400 Notes: 1. Data is not collected on the Armed Forces status of UC claimants in Northern Ireland. The figures provided only relate to Great Britain.2. Percentages are rounded to the nearest percent and numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred.3. Figures may be subject to retrospective changes as more up-to-date data becomes available or if methodological improvements are made.4. Due to methodological improvements, these figures are based on the Official Statistics UC caseload definition. Some previous figures have used an alternative caseload definition based on assessment period end dates.5. Further information on the caseload definition used for the UC official statistics can be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Working Conditions: Heating

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the cold weather alert issued by UK Health Security Agency on 5 December 2022, whether his Department plans to provide advice to employers on maintaining workplace temperatures (a) in winter 2022-23 and (b) during cold weather alerts.

Mims Davies: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publish guidance on its website for employers on maintaining a reasonable workplace temperature during cold weather. The guidance includes specific measures that can be taken by both employers and workers and includes a workplace temperature checklist. HSE regularly reviews its guidance and the latest refreshed guidance went live on 1 December 2022. HSE’s home webpage was updated on 6 December 2022 to cover working in cold weather, coinciding with the UK Health Security Agency and Met Office cold weather alert. HSE also publishes posts across all its social media channels and on 7 December 2022 this included advice on how people can help and protect workers from the effects of cold temperatures.

Universal Credit: Employment

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of job offers to Universal Credit claimants are refused; and what proportion of these refusals his Department accepts without sanctioning the claimant.

Guy Opperman: The information is not readily available and to provide it would incur a disproportionate cost. All conditionality requirements, which include accepting job offers, are tailored to a claimant’s circumstances so they are reasonable and achievable, and agreed between the claimant and their Work Coach.

Employment and Support Allowance: Universal Credit

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee on 30th November 2022, HC 549, for what reasons his Department estimates that 400,000 of the one million remaining Employment Support Allowance recipients will now naturally migrate onto Universal Credit through a change of circumstances by 2028.

Guy Opperman: The Department estimates there are currently around 1m Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) income-based claimants (who are not also on Child Tax Credits) and around 600k of these might still be claiming ESA in April 2028. This number is lower because, claimants have a change of circumstances and naturally migrate to Universal Credit, (i) claimants leave benefit altogether (e.g., find a job), (ii) claimants reach State Pension age and are no longer eligible for working age benefits.

Pensions

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to increase (a) private and (b) workplace pension contributions.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions he has had with (a) ministerial colleagues and (b) stakeholders on extending (a) eligibility and (b) minimum contributions for automatic enrolment in workplace pensions.

Laura Trott: We have been clear that the next step for Automatic Enrolment is the implementation of the 2017 Review measures in the mid-2020s. These measures will improve pension eligibility and contribution levels, in particular for low and medium earners. Alongside this, we are supporting better planning for retirement saving and financial well-being – Pensions dashboards will help individuals plan for later life.

Cold Weather Payments

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of maximum waiting times to receive the Cold Weather Payment on people with pay-as-you-go energy meters.

Laura Trott: The Cold Weather Payment scheme ensures that vulnerable claimants on qualifying benefits automatically receive a payment of £25 for every 7-day period of exceptionally cold weather. It is paid within 14 working days of a trigger. Issuing payments automatically without the need to claim provides certainty to claimants and minimises delays.

Second State Pension Age Independent Review

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plan to publish the report submitted by Baroness Neville-Rolfe in September 2022 regarding her independent review of the state pension age.

Laura Trott: The independent report was submitted on 16 September 2022 and is currently being considered as part of a wide range of evidence that will inform the second Government Review of State Pension age. The Government Review will be published in early 2023, as announced at the Autumn Statement 2022. The independent report will be published alongside it.

State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensioners living outside of the UK had their pensions stopped in the last six months owing to postal issues and life certificate forms broken down by current country of residence.

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pensioners living outside of the UK had their pensions stopped in the last six months due to postal issues and life certificate forms broken down by country.

Laura Trott: DWP does not maintain data regarding the temporary suspension of International State Pensions owing to postal issues, as this is not something the Department is able to determine.

State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made a recent assessment of the impact of the cost of living and inflation on British pensioners living overseas in countries without a reciprocal uprating agreement with the UK.

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the (a) impact of cost of living and (b) inflation increases on British pensioners living overseas in countries without a reciprocal uprating agreement with the UK.

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has he made of the impact of inflation increases on British pensioners living overseas in countries without a reciprocal uprating agreement with the UK.

Laura Trott: DWP does not make such assessments. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide to those who meet the qualifying conditions. Entitlement is based on an individual’s national insurance record. The policy on up-rating UK State Pensions overseas is long-standing and has been supported by successive post-war Governments for over 70 years. We continue to up-rate UK State Pensions abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so – for example where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating. There are no plans to change this policy.

State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to help support UK pensioners living in countries without a reciprocal pension uprating agreement with the UK.

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department is taking steps to support UK pensioners living overseas in countries which do not have a reciprocal uprating agreement with the UK.

Laura Trott: The UK State Pension is payable worldwide to those who meet the qualifying conditions. Entitlement is based on an individual’s national insurance record. State Pensions are up-rated abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so – for example where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating.This Government continues to take the view that priority should be given to those living in the UK when drawing up expenditure plans for pensioner benefits. There is information available in leaflets and on GOV.UK on how to claim State Pension from overseas and on what the effect of going abroad will be on a person’s UK State Pension.

Commonwealth: Pensions

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact on the Government's Global Britain agenda of the policy of not uprating pensions paid to UK pensioners living in commonwealth countries where there is no requirement to do so.

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the frozen pensions policy, impacting around 48 commonwealth countries, in relation to the Government’s Global Britain vision.

Laura Trott: The policy on the up-rating of UK State Pensions overseas is longstanding and has been supported by successive Governments for over 70 years. There are no plans to change the policy. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide, and we continue to up-rate it abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so; for example, where recipients are living in countries where there is a reciprocal agreement in place that provides for up-rating.

Maladministration: Compensation

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the expected time for a decision to be made by the National Special Payments Team is; and what the average time taken for those decisions is.

Tom Pursglove: DWP makes special payments to people who have incurred additional costs, losses and/or suffered other non-financial (personal) impacts, as a direct consequence of our maladministration. This is a discretionary scheme, but we routinely consider a special payment if our service has adversely affected a customer.The vast majority of payments are made locally by a complaint resolution manager once they have investigated a customer’s issue. The role of the National Special Payment team is to consider the more complex cases which, by the nature of the complaint, may mean it takes longer to make the award. Throughout the award process we remain in contact with the customer providing them with regular updates. The aim is always that Special Payment decisions should culminate in timely and appropriate redress for our customers and our expectation is that each case will be responded to within a reasonable timeframe. This will differ depending on the complexity of the case and the reason for the referral to the National Special Payments team. As such, the department does not have formal clearance measures; however, currently, across all referrals, the average clearance time is 9 days. If there are any cases you are aware of, please let us have the details and we will look into these.

State Retirement Pensions: Uprating

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps is the Department is taking to ensure the basic state pensions rises in line with the new state pension.

Laura Trott: The Government has announced plans to increase the rates of both the basic State Pension and the new State Pension by 10.1% in April 2023. Subject to Parliamentary approval, this will mean that the full yearly basic State Pension will be over £3,000 higher than in 2010.

Universal Credit: Work Capability Assessment

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number of Universal Credit work capability assessment interviews which were to take place (a) by telephone and (b) in person were cancelled in (i) the City of York Council area (ii) Yorkshire and the Humber and (iii) England in each of the last three years.

Tom Pursglove: The information is not held to answer parts (i) and (ii) as we are unable to break data down to constituency or regional level. The table below shows the number of (a) telephone and (b) face-to-face Universal Credit (UC) Work Capability Assessments (WCA), cancelled by the provider or claimant, in England, from June 2020 onwards. We are unable to provide data for the full 3 years requested, as this data was not captured prior to June 2020. Assessment Centre UC WCA Appointment Cancellations (England only) Telephone Face-to-FaceJun 20900-Jul 204,400-Aug 207,300-Sep 208,400-Oct 2011,200-Nov 2014,100-Dec 2015,200-Jan 2115,400-Feb 2111,600-Mar 2111,100-Apr 219,900-May 218,800200Jun 218,1001,500Jul 2110,1001,900Aug 2110,400600Sep 2110,500400Oct 219,900700Nov 217,7003,900Dec 217,4004,400Jan 2211,100100Feb 228,1002,400Mar 227,3004,500Apr 225,5003,800May 226,2004,600Jun 225,4004,400Jul 226,1005,100Aug 225,9004,700Sep 226,6004,900Oct 226,0004,500Nov 226,4005,200 Please note All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100;All of the above data is derived from contractual management information summary reports produced by the assessment provider;Data is UC only and is taken from assessment centres within England;Data is only available from June 2020 by assessment channel;On 8 December 2021 the country was instructed to follow Plan B measures to slow the spread of Omicron; as part of these instructions health assessment providers were instructed to pause face-to-face assessments until the restrictions were lifted on 27 January 2022;The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.

Work Capability Assessment

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit recipients were assessed as having Limited Capability for (a) Work and (b) Work and Work-related Activity in each month since May 2016; and how many such recipients had an outstanding Work Capability Assessment referral other than Limited Capability for Work and Work and Work-related Activity in each of those months.

Tom Pursglove: The table below shows the latest Universal Credit (UC) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) decisions recorded between April 2019 and September 2022 by the month the decision was recorded on the UC system. Prior to April 2019, some UC claims were recorded on an interim operational system called UC Live Service (UCLS). Figures for UCLS Health claimants are not currently collated and to develop that information would incur disproportionate cost.  LIMITED CAPABILITY FOR WORKLIMITED CAPABILITY FOR WORK RELATED ACTIVITIESApr-193,1506,010May-192,8507,140Jun-193,6007,770Jul-194,68010,110Aug-193,57015,530Sep-193,91014,320Oct-192,3809,050Nov-192,06018,270Dec-193,32016,640Jan-2013,57018,290Feb-2012,48029,140Mar-2010,88018,780Apr-203,9407,060May-201,2508,690Jun-201,0609,200Jul-2098010,230Aug-2081010,140Sep-201,06012,210Oct-202,49018,080Nov-203,41011,260Dec-207,69018,280Jan-213,99013,530Feb-215,30016,170Mar-216,31021,050Apr-214,72016,360May-216,07019,850Jun-215,59018,580Jul-216,86020,490Aug-215,57015,120Sep-216,52019,830Oct-217,09020,960Nov-216,23019,390Dec-216,07020,230Jan-228,21023,220Feb-227,61024,890Mar-229,05029,280Apr-226,83022,060May-228,83029,990Jun-228,77027,490Jul-227,75025,450Aug-228,70026,870Sep-228,24026,380 Please note:(i) Where a claimant has more than one decision relating to a Work Capability Assessment recorded (for example, if a Mandatory Reconsideration or Appeal resulted in a change of decision) then only the latest decision will be included;(ii) In order to allow sufficient time for retrospection and for the analytical datasets to be created, volumes for September 2022 is the latest information we have available for WCA decisions;(iii) All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10;(iv) These figures are produced using internal MI, are not quality assured to Official Statistics standards, and may be subject to revision.  The table below outlines the outstanding UC WCA cases, as recorded at each month end, from May 2016. Total outstanding WCA cases includes all UC referrals in the process at that point in time. This can include claimants who have been asked to return a Capability for Work questionnaire and have still to do so, those yet to be referred to a health assessment provider and those who already have an assessment scheduled. UC started to replace income-related Employment and Support Allowance for new claims from January 2016, resulting in an increase in outstanding UC WCAs over the subsequent years. In addition, most WCAs were paused for several months starting in March 2020 as a result of the COVID pandemic, leading to a further increase in outstanding WCAs, which started to fall from late 2020.  UC – TOTAL OUTSTANDINGMay-164,690Jun-165,300Jul-166,470Aug-168,910Sep-1612,540Oct-1615,120Nov-1616,410Dec-1616,190Jan-1716,360Feb-1715,700Mar-1717,140Apr-1719,070May-1722,780Jun-1726,000Jul-1727,420Aug-1728,800Sep-1729,720Oct-1731,690Nov-1735,250Dec-1738,020Jan-1841,630Feb-1843,000Mar-1844,560Apr-1842,650May-1839,980Jun-1839,900Jul-1846,110Aug-1853,820Sep-1856,950Oct-1857,810Nov-1865,420Dec-1866,280Jan-1977,490Feb-1987,460Mar-1999,810Apr-1997,950May-19101,450Jun-19105,260Jul-19124,720Aug-19135,920Sep-19137,300Oct-19163,600Nov-19167,140Dec-19159,110Jan-20159,360Feb-20162,510Mar-20166,680Apr-20171,600May-20183,300Jun-20202,100Jul-20243,810Aug-20262,840Sep-20283,770Oct-20291,010Nov-20293,460Dec-20287,200Jan-21284,900Feb-21286,000Mar-21285,900Apr-21276,350May-21272,240Jun-21263,260Jul-21263,230Aug-21259,190Sep-21257,400Oct-21264,220Nov-21270,850Dec-21268,570Jan-22258,140Feb-22252,600Mar-22251,810Apr-22244,750May-22239,890Jun-22238,130Jul-22237,240Aug-22231,730Sep-22226,650Oct-22227,070Nov-22222,600  Please note:(i) The total outstanding relates to the number of outstanding referrals as at a point in time, taken on the last day of each month;(ii) All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10;(iii) All of the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the WCA assessment provider;(iv) The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.

Cost of Living Payments: Means-tested Benefits

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing part of the cost of living payment to people on means tested benefits in winter 2022.

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing part of the Cost of Living Payment to people on means tested benefits in Winter 2022.

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending eligibility for part of the Cost of Living Payment to people on means-tested benefits in winter 2022-23.

Stuart C McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing part of a Cost of Living Payment to people on means-tested benefits during winter 2022-23.

Mims Davies: No such assessment has been made. We will be bringing forward legislation for the 23/24 Cost of Living Payments in due course.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Canal and River Trust: Finance

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her review of the future grant funding for the Canal & River Trust post-2027 will conclude; and whether she will publish that review once concluded.

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of reducing funding for UK waterways and reservoirs on the (a) level of risk faced by communities and (b) economic, social and environmental afforded to areas near those waterways and reservoirs.

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment as part of the review of the Canal & River Trust's future grant funding of the potential impact of climate change on the cost of maintenance and repair of waterways.

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the progress made by the Canal & River Trust on growing alternative income sources to its grant funding.

Rebecca Pow: The Government currently provides an annual grant of over £50 million to the Canal and River Trust, guaranteed until 2027. We are undertaking a review of the grant, as required by the 2012 Grant Agreement. The review is assessing whether the grant is providing value for money and whether there is a case for continued government funding beyond the end of the grant period in 2027. As the review is ongoing, I am unable to provide specific details. The outcome of the review will be announced when it has concluded.

Water Supply: Thames Valley

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the affordability of water bills for people in (a) Slough constituency and (b) Thames Valley.

Rebecca Pow: Ofwat assesses affordability for each water company through a 5 yearly process called the Price Review. As part of this process, water companies must set out in their business plans how they will address affordability and outline their support measures for households that are struggling to pay, or who are at risk of struggling to pay. As set out in our Strategic Policy Statement to Ofwat, we expect water companies to improve the availability, quality and uptake of support to low income and other vulnerable household customers. All water companies offer reduced bills for eligible customers via the WaterSure scheme and social tariffs. For example, Thames Water’s social tariff (Water Help) could help their eligible customers receive a bill discount of up to 50%. In addition to bill discounts, water companies also offer a range of other financial support measures such as payment holidays, bill matching and advice on debt management and water efficiency.

Air Pollution

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she will make an assessment of the potential impact of not announcing formal air quality targets on the timeline for the development of the Environmental Improvement Plan.

Rebecca Pow: We will be publishing the targets as soon as possible and the Environmental Improvement Plan will be published before 31 January.

Water Companies: Standards

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to prohibit dividend payments by water companies that do not meet Ofwat performance delivery targets.

Rebecca Pow: Government and Ofwat have been clear that companies must be transparent about how dividends are linked to services for customers. Government supports Ofwat’s recent consultation on improving financial resilience in the water sector, including strengthening the current licence condition related to water companies' dividends policies. These proposals would enable Ofwat to take enforcement action against companies that don’t link dividend payments to their environmental performance, or those failing to be transparent about their dividend pay-outs. The consultation closed on 29 September and Ofwat will publish their decision document in early 2023. We are working closely with Ofwat to understand the findings and next steps.

Sewage: Storage

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of strengthening the Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan by (a) accelerating the targets for water companies to reduce harm by 2030 and (b) adding targets for the Government on tackling the root causes of excess storm overflows.

Rebecca Pow: We have committed to review the targets in the plan in 2027. This will occur ahead of the 2029-2034 water company planning cycle (PR29) once new information, including from companies' business plans, is available. This will allow us to establish if companies can go further and faster to achieve the storm overflow targets in the Plan without having a disproportionate impact on consumers bills.Tackling the root cause of storm overflows is a priority in the Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction Plan, which sets out how better rainwater management is key to achieving reduction in sewage discharges from storm overflows. This is the most ambitious plan to address storm sewage discharges in water company history and new strict targets will see the toughest ever crack down on sewage spills.

Water Companies: Fines

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will bring forward proposals to increase the Environment Agency's minimum civil fine for each breach of the rules by water companies to £250 million.

Rebecca Pow: Following your announcement as Secretary of State for Defra in October, Defra is preparing a consultation on plans to increase the cap on fines the Environment Agency can impose on water companies for serious breaches of rules.

Pigs: Slaughterhouses

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department collects on the killing of pigs; how many pigs have been killed annually in England and Wales over the last five years; and how many pigs have been stunned and killed using high concentrations of CO2.

Mark Spencer: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs publishes annual slaughter figures. Figures from 2017 to 2021 are available in the data sets provided here:Latest cattle, sheep and pig slaughter statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)The latest Food Standards Agency (FSA) slaughter sector survey conducted in 2022 can be found in the following publication: Results of the August 2022 FSA Survey into Slaughter Methods in England and Wales (publishing.service.gov.uk).

Dogs: Smuggling

Ian Levy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to prevent exploitation of the Pet Travel Scheme by traders seeking to facilitate illegal importation of puppies.

Mark Spencer: We have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world and the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill will bring in some of the world’s strongest protections for pets, livestock and kept wild animals including measures which tackle puppy smuggling.

World Wine Trade Group

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential benefits of the UK joining the World Wine Trade Group; and if she will make a statement.

Mark Spencer: The Government has not completed an assessment of the benefits of joining the World Wine Trade Group (WWTG). However I can report that at the WWTG's request, a representative from the British Consulate in San Francisco attended this year's annual WWTG meeting in Santa Rosa, California. They gave a short address to the meeting covering various UK wine related topics including importer labelling, met with WWTG members and learned more about the various strands of work that are being progressed.

Dogs: Imports

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including mandatory visual checks of imported puppies at the UK border as part of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill.

Mark Spencer: Now that we have left the EU, we are making significant changes to domestic law through the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, bringing in legislation to further protect the welfare of pets, farmed and kept wild animals in Great Britain. The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill allows us to further protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain. The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill also includes powers to introduce further restrictions on pet travel and on the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation. We have no plans to introduce further visual checks as part of the Bill.

Home Office

Asylum: Housing

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much and what proportion of Government spending classed as Official Development Assistance was spent by her Department on accommodation for asylum seekers in each year since 2013.

Robert Jenrick: Given the complexity of factors involved in calculating ODA spend, the Home Office does not categorise data on ODA spend in a way that makes it possible to answer this question.

Fraud

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what she plans to publish the fraud strategy.

Tom Tugendhat: The Fraud Strategy continues to be developed and will be published in the new year.We will work with industry to remove the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit, with intelligence agencies to shut down fraudulent infrastructure, with law enforcement to identify and bring the most harmful offenders to justice, and with all partners to ensure that the public have the advice and support they need.

Home Office: Theft

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of her Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

Chris Philp: The total number of Laptops and Smartphones reported lost or stolen by staff since 1 January 2018 is 1227, summarised in table 1. Incidents2018112019360202022420212812022351Total1227Table 1 – Incident Summary for Lost Stolen devicesThe total number of assets (lost or stolen) still missing in the same period is 868 as shown in table 2. This does illustrate that the department recovers devices reported lost e.g. left at home or office and subsequently found. LaptopSmartphones YearLostStolenLostStolen 201800801812019001410141202010940952021001140114202211140421437Total12183322868Table 2 – Lost / Stolen Laptops and SmartphonesThe number of lost stolen memory sticks or hard drives is shown in table 2 below.YearMemory sticksHard drives20181 (lost)0201901 (stolen)20200020212 (lost)1 (lost)20222 (lost)0Table 3 – Lost Stolen Memory Sticks and Hard Drives

Wind Power: Migrant Workers

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 102998 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, whether the wide range of stakeholders includes (a) other Government departments and (b) employers in the industries where the concessions have an effect.

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 102998 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, which stakeholders her Department consulted prior to the introduction of the Offshore Wind Workers Immigration Rules Concession 2017.

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 102999 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, whether she makes regular assessments with Cabinet colleagues of the impact of concessions from the immigration rules on the domestic labour market.

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2022 to Question 102998 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, whether any representations were received from employers on an extension of the concession (a) between 1 July 2021 and 31 October 2022 and (b) since 31 October 2022.

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2022 to Question 102998 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, whether her Department had made an assessment of levels of labour before granting the extension.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office regularly engages with other government departments.The Home Office is not responsible for evaluating the labour market or governing how private companies recruit their workers.The immigration system aims to allow employers to access the skilled labour that they need to grow the UK economy whilst also ensuring that we maintain control over who comes to the UK to work.

Home Office: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department, including predecessor Departments, since 2010; for which (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for which (A) periods and (B) tasks.

Chris Philp: To retrieve historical information on secondments would require a manual search of local records as only current secondments are held centrally by the Home Office.Therefore, this information can only be obtained by disproportionate effort.

Asylum: Temporary Accommodation

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many overnight stays in the area served by Luton Borough Council have asylum seekers spent in (a) dispersed accommodation, (b) overflow dispersed accommodation, (c) contingency hotel, (d) stage one overnight initial accommodate or (e) spot booking in November 2022.

Robert Jenrick: Statistics relating to supported asylum seekers temporarily residing in contingency accommodation are published as Immigration Statistics under the S98 population tables and the latest published immigration statistics also detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at Asylum and resettlement datasets www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets. Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 24 November 2022. The next quarterly figures are due to be released in February 2023.The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of these statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers accommodated in specific accommodation. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2022 to Question 95881 on Immigration: EU Nationals, when he plans to publish this information; and whether that information can be made available through the previous casework system.

Robert Jenrick: The Administrative Review Unit is already working proactively with developers to implement and improve the system for further roll out, and, following this, a definitive timeline on publishing administrative review data will be possible.

Asylum: Temporary Accommodation

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department is  spending on accommodation for asylum applicants (a) awaiting an initial decision, (b) awaiting a final decision and (c) who have been refused asylum but are receiving support under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers accommodated in specific types of accommodation, the duration of their receipt of support or the number at specific stages of the asylum process. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.Costs are subject to change depending on numbers being accommodated within the asylum system. Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information. However, total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts.

Overseas Students

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential economic effect on the UK university sector of restricting the number of (a) international students and (b) their dependants permitted into the UK.

Robert Jenrick: The Government’s International Education Strategy set out a target of attracting 600,000 international Higher Education students to the UK by 2030, which we have achieved almost a decade early.The public rightly expects us to control immigration and ensure we have a system that works in the UK’s best interests. We keep our immigration policies under constant review to ensure they reflect our priorities.

Refugees

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to help protect people who have fled from (a) Hong Kong, (b) Taiwan and (c) authoritarian regimes.

Robert Jenrick: On 31 January 2021 the UK Government opened the BN(O) route for BN(O) status holders in Hong Kong. As of 30 September, over 1️4️4️,0️0️0️ visas been granted so far on the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) route (BN(O)). The route gives them and their eligible family members the opportunity to live, study and work in the UK on a pathway to citizenship. On 30 November 2022 the BN(O) route was expanded to allow the adult children of BN(O) status holders who were born on or after 1 July 1997 and are aged 18 or over the ability to apply to the route independently of their BN(O) parents. They will need to meet all remaining requirements of the route.

Domestic Abuse

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to provide emergency support to domestic abuse (a) survivors and (b) services during the cost of living crisis.

Miss Sarah Dines: Tackling domestic abuse is a priority for this Government. A key part of this is making sure victims and survivors get the support they need.The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, which we published in March, invests over £230 million, including over £140 million specifically for supporting victims and survivors. The commitments in the Plan include doubling funding for the National Domestic Abuse Helpline.The Plan also committed to establish trials of a ‘flexible fund’, which charities could use to provide extra money to victims and survivors in light of cost of living pressures. This money could be used to help them flee an abuser.The Government is aware that rises in the cost of living will also have an impact on charitable organisations, as well as those they are supporting.That is why, with the Ministry of Justice, we are delivering on our commitment in the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan to provide multi-year funding, where possible, for support services. We have already launched funding competitions which do this, including the Violence against Woman and Girls: Specialist and Support Services competition.This will offer more stability and consistency for service users, as services will not be dependent on yearly grants. This will help to continue the delivery of high quality support throughout any increases in the cost of living.

Violent and Sex Offender Register

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many registered sex offenders there are in the UK.

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many registered sex offenders have notified the authorities of a name change in the last five years.

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many registered sex offenders are deemed missing by the police.

Miss Sarah Dines: The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to manage sex offenders and those who pose a risk, and we are committed to ensuring our system is as robust as it can be. Registered sex offenders are required to notify the police of specified personal details - including their name, date of birth and bank details - annually and whenever these details change.The police are responsible for the management of registered sex offenders. Data on the number of registered sex offenders that have notified the authorities of a name change in the last five years and on the number of offenders recorded as ‘missing’ by the police are not centrally collected.We have strengthened police powers through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 with new provisions that came into force on 29 November.We have also conducted an internal review into the issue of offenders changing their name and the name change process to ensure it as robust as possible.The most recent Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) Annual Report was published by the Ministry of Justice on 27 October. It shows that on 31 March 2022, there were 66,741 registered sex offenders in England and Wales.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Members: Correspondence

John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he will reply to the letters of 6 October and 3 Novemberfrom the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare on behalf of constituent, Mr Michael Hancock, on radon gas.

Lee Rowley: A response was issued to my Hon. Friend's letter on 14 December 2022.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Secondment

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the benefits of seconding officials in his Department with local government experience to local authorities.

Dehenna Davison: The department has made no specific assessment of the benefits of seconding officials with local government experience to local authorities. The department has close working relationships with local authorities and there are many examples of successful interchange both from and to local authorities.The Declaration on Government Reform, published in June 2021, set out the Government's intention to grow the number of inward and outward secondments between the Civil Service and other sectors of the economy, including the wider public sector, as part of its ambition to increase the porosity of the Civil Service.

Local Government Finance: Energy

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment has been made of the potential impact of increased energy costs on local authority finances; and if he will make a statement.

Lee Rowley: As we have set out previously, we recognise that councils are facing higher costs. At the Autumn Statement, the Government announced significant additional resources for local government, making available approximately £6.5 billion of taxpayer subsidy for local government to deliver core services in 2023/24 and 2024/25 in addition to what was agreed at the 2021 Spending Review.In addition, the Energy Bill Relief Scheme is providing a discount on energy prices this winter for councils whose bills have been significantly inflated by the global energy crisis.

Local Government Finance

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of costs incurred by local authorities when applying for competitive Local Authority funding pots.

Lee Rowley: It is ultimately for individual local authorities to determine when and which funding pots to apply for but we also recognise that the process of applying for competitive funding does incur costs and have provided support to places accordingly; this includes as an example, the Levelling Up Fund which provided £125,000 of capacity funding to all eligible English local authorities.

Letting Agents: Deposits

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with letting agencies on the use of zero deposit schemes.

Felicity Buchan: Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, letting agents cannot require tenants to meet any conditions that could only be met by paying a fee for a third-party service including requiring the tenant to use a deposit replacement product.Enforcement of the prohibitions under the Tenant Fees Acts sits with National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency.Deposit replacement products can offer flexibility and remove barriers to securing a tenancy for tenants who would otherwise struggle to fund an upfront cash deposit. We are keeping the impact and risks of deposit alternatives under review, including their affordability, accessibility, and the way they are sold.

Planning Permission

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make it his policy to introduce new powers to encourage developers to build out.

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help ensure local development plans carry legal weight as part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing the new Infrastructure Levy, as proposed in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, prior to occupation to help ensure councils can deliver necessary infrastructure alongside new housing development.

Lucy Frazer: I refer the Hon Member to the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement of 6 Dec, which address local plans and build out, as well as the infrastructure levy. We will be launching a technical consultation on the Infrastructure Levy shortly which consider the timing of payments.

Housing

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential role of densification in helping to increase supply of housing.

Lucy Frazer: Further to the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement of 6 December, the Department agrees that densification of our towns and cities can play an important part in meeting our housing needs in a way which makes effective use of previously developed land and the availability of infrastructure and services.

Holiday Accommodation and Second Homes: Urban Areas

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will take steps to place a limit on the number of (a) holiday lets and (b) second homes in small cities.

Lucy Frazer: Further to the answer given in response to Question UIN 93582 on 28 November, we have committed through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to introduce a register of short term let properties. This will support the government's drive to improve holiday accommodation standards and provide local authorities with information on which properties are being used as a short term let. In addition, we have committed to consult on the introduction of a planning use class for short term lets. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, this would help local authorities better control the proliferation of such uses. We continue to keep the planning status of second homes under review.

Housing: Construction

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to take steps to set new minimum levels of housing delivery.

Lucy Frazer: I refer the Hon Member to the Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement of 06 December 2022.

Key Worker Living Scheme: Housing Associations

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the impact on [NHS recruitment and retention] of variations in criteria for Key Worker Housing schemes offered by housing associations.

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has to support key workers to access affordable housing.

Abena Oppong-Asare: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department provides guidance to housing associations to help promote uniformity in the eligibility criteria for Key Worker Housing schemes administered by those associations.

Lucy Frazer: The Government has brought forward a range of recent interventions to promote home ownership. As an example, the First Homes programme is designed to help local first-time buyers, and the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme is intended to provide tens of thousands of new homes, a large number of which will be for Affordable and Social Rent.Housing associations are required by the Tenancy Standard to co-operate with their local authority's strategic housing function and their duties to meet identified housing needs. As private organisations, beyond the obligations from these arrangements with their local authorities, housing associations are free to let their properties as they wish - including to key workers.DLUHC does not collect data on NHS recruitment and retention.

Homelessness

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent steps his Department has taken to help tackle homelessness.

Felicity Buchan: The Government is committed to tackling homelessness and ending rough sleeping. For 2022/23, we are investing £366 million into the Homelessness Prevention Grant in England, which includes an additional £50 million top-up announced in December 2022 to support local authorities to help prevent vulnerable households from becoming homeless this winter.This is all part of £2 billion of investment over the next three years to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Written Questions

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what percentage of instances of replies to written parliamentary questions does his department issue a holding answer indicating that it will not be possible to answer the question asked within the usual time period.

Dehenna Davison: Departmental performance data for the previous parliamentary session is published here.

Freeport East

Tom Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of progress of the Freeport East project.

Tom Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure completion of the Freeport East project.

Tom Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential economic benefits to Ipswich of the Freeport East project.

Dehenna Davison: Freeport East is fully operational with both tax and custom sites designated. The Department is now working with the Freeport to secure final approval of the Freeport's Full Business Case, which is expected shortly. As part of this process, the Department has considered the potential economic benefits to the Freeport East outer boundary area.The Freeports programme monitoring and evaluation strategy sets out the approach the Department will take to measure the economic benefit in the wider Freeport area.

Employment: Equality

Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of measuring progress in reducing inequalities in relation to job quality metrics.

Dehenna Davison: Levelling Up means giving everyone the opportunity to flourish.Job quality is a central element of this vision and is why we asked the ONS to develop new estimates of job quality, which will be published later this week.

Social Rented Housing: Rents

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that social landlords do not circumvent the 7 per cent cap on rent increases in 2023-24 by increasing service charges.

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if his Department will commission research into the impact of elements previously covered by rent in social housing now being paid for by service charges, including caretaking, and maintenance of lifts and door entry systems.

Dehenna Davison: Further to the answer I gave to Question UIN 86547, on 23 November 2022, the Government believes very strongly that service charges should be transparent and communicated effectively. The way a service charge is organised (for example, what it covers and how it is worked out) is set out in the lease or tenancy agreement.

Housing: Mould

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of households that are affected by mould as of 9 December 2022; and whether his Department is taking steps to implement a strategy to help reduce that number.

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of households in the UK which contain mould.

Dehenna Davison: The Secretary of State has written to social housing providers, setting out his expectation that they act swiftly to rectify damp and mould and be prepared to respond to the Regulator of Social Housing on the extent of these issues in their areas.For the private rented sector, the Secretary of State has written to all local authorities setting out his expectation that they will take action to resolve poor housing conditions in their area and requiring them to respond to the department on current conditions.The annual English Housing Survey publishes data on damp and mould.

Heating: Government Assistance

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many local authorities (a) are providing and (b) plan to provide warm banks in England in the winter of 2022-23.

Lee Rowley: I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 73903 on 3 November 2022. In recognition of the pressures local government are facing, the Government announced at the Autumn Statement that approximately £6.5 billion will be made available for local government in England to deliver core services in 2023/24 and 2024/25, in addition to what was agreed at the 2021 Spending Review.

Housing: Energy

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which constituencies have the highest proportion of homes with an Energy Performance Certificate below level Level E.

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many homes have an Energy Performance Certificate below Level E as of 8 December 2022.

Lee Rowley: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 105314 on 12 December 2022.

Cabinet Office

Prime Minister: Theft

Sarah Olney: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many of the Prime Minister's Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

Jeremy Quin: For management and staffing purposes, the Prime Minister’s Office is an integrated part of the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office had 10,655 staff in 2022-23, and all devices are fully security encrypted. The following table includes the number of lost/stolen devices in the Cabinet Office in the last five years.  20182019202020212022Laptops5440272828Mobile phones93188113127140Memory sticks00000External hard drives00000 Given steps taken to secure information, we do not believe there has been any data loss or compromise as a result of these losses.

Prime Minister: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department including predecessor Departments since 2010; for what (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for what (A) periods and (B) tasks.

Jeremy Quin: The Cabinet Office does not hold a centralised list of secondments for the dates in question, as historically this data has been held locally. We have, as of January 2022, begun to keep a record of secondments arranged centrally for those below SCS, however this may not include every secondment as there are still circumstances whereby these can be arranged at a local level. Of the data held, no secondments to or from any of the companies asked about have been recorded.

Department for International Trade

Trade Agreements: Japan

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December to Question 93431 on Trade Agreements: Japan, when each (a) committee and (b) working group established by the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement has met.

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December to Question 93431 on Trade Agreements: Japan, when each (a) committee and (b) working groups established by the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement plans to meet.

Greg Hands: The following committees, under the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, were last held on the following dates: Working Group on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment: 21 October 2021Committee on Trade in Services, Investment Liberalisation and Electronic Commerce: 1 November 2021Committee on Government Procurement: 25 November 2021Committee on Regulatory Cooperation: 04 February 2022Joint Committee: 24 February 2022Working Group on Wine (Trade in Goods): By written procedure on 1 January 2021Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: 27 April 2022UK-Japan Financial Regulatory Forum: 9 June 2022Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade: 29 June 2022Working Group in Motor Vehicles and Parts (Trade in Goods): 24 June 2022Committee on Intellectual Property: 28 October 2022Committee on Trade in Goods: 30 November 2022 The next Working Group on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment is planned for January 2023. The Government is in discussions with Japan about appropriate dates for other committees.

Regional Convention on Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Preferential Rules of Origin

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the potential benefits of the UK joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention; and if she will make a statement.

Greg Hands: Government analysis and extensive engagement with industry supported our decision not to seek to accede to the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) Convention in parallel to our negotiations with the EU. Instead, we negotiated a deal with the EU that is tailored to the make-up of our economy. In all our trade deals we tailor our approach to rules of origin to support businesses. This has included use of modernised PEM rules, for example in our free trade agreements with Switzerland and EEA-EFTA States. The Government does not have any plans to change this position.

Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the potential benefits of the UK joining the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability; and if she will make a statement.

Greg Hands: The UK recognises the value of the ongoing negotiations between Agreement on Climate Change, Trade & Sustainability (ACCTS) members on new trade and climate commitments that would apply unilaterally (e.g. not only between ACCTS members). We are not seeking to join at present, but to tackle trade and environmental issues through discussions with as many partners as possible. Global problems require global solutions, and we are therefore progressing these matters through multilateral organisations, particularly at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD), a plurilateral WTO group made up of 74 members.

Overseas Trade: Gulf States

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to increase trade with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Greg Hands: The UK is negotiating a modern, comprehensive, and ambitious trade deal with the GCC. Government analysis shows that in the long run a deal is expected to increase trade by at least 16% and add £1.6 billion a year to the UK economy. We continue to work with GCC members to uncover and remove trade barriers to boost trade, and to drive forward investment into the UK, creating jobs and supporting the UK economy.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Gendered Intelligence: Finance

Miriam Cates: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2022 to Question 90903, to provide details of (a) the dates on which payments were made and (b) the amount of money paid to Gendered Intelligence by each of the organisations listed.

Stuart Andrew: The Department has provided funding to the charity Gendered Intelligence through exchequer funding as follows:£600.00 on 02 August 2021 for a training course£134,430.00 on 06 March 2019 for Sport England Trans Inclusion Project£117,318.00 on 03 April 2020 for Sport England Trans Inclusion Project£11,214.323 on 01 October 2020 as part of the Big Night In campaign, administered by Children in Need on behalf of DCMS as part of the financial support for voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to respond to coronavirus (COVID-19).The National Lottery Community Fund funding to Gendered Intelligence is through lottery funds rather than from the Department.

Ofcom: Competition

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of Ofcom’s ability to (a) protect and (b) promote competition among fixed telecoms infrastructure providers.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of Ofcom's performance on its promoting and protecting competition responsibility set out by the Statement of Strategic Priorities; and if she will make a statement.

Julia Lopez: The Government’s Statement of Strategic Priorities (SSP) for Ofcom (published in 2019) sets out that Ofcom must take account of the Government’s priorities for full-fibre connectivity, including by delivering stable and long-term regulation that incentivises network investment and ensures fair and effective competition between new and existing network operators when taking its regulatory decisions.Ofcom is required to report on how it has considered the Statement every twelve months. The updates which form part of Ofcom’s Annual Reports can be found here: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/annual-reports-and-plans.Additionally, in 2021 Ofcom published its Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review (WFTMR) which set out Ofcom’s decisions for regulation of the fixed telecoms markets until 2026. The WFTMR makes explicit mention of the government’s desire for regulatory stability and certainty set out in the Statement of Strategic Priorities.Since the publication of our SSP for Ofcom, there are now over 80 companies investing over £35bn to connect premises all over the UK, and gigabit coverage has increased to over 72%, rising from just 6%.

Broadband: Hampshire

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that sure homes in Hampshire that are not included in the gigabit broadband tendering process by suppliers can still get superfast broadband.

Julia Lopez: In Hampshire, just over 97% of premises can access superfast broadband (>=30Mbps), which is in line with the UK national average.As part of Project Gigabit, we have launched a regional procurement in Hampshire, to bring gigabit-capable broadband to up to 88,000 hard-to-reach premises that are not included in suppliers’ commercial build plans. We have also launched a local procurement in the New Forest area, which will connect an estimated further 10,000 premises. The two contracts have a combined indicative value of almost £120 million and we aim to award contracts between April and June 2023.Eligible premises in Hampshire can also receive a gigabit-capable connection through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. We recently announced an increase in the value of these vouchers so that new projects can receive as much as £4,500 towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband in rural and particularly hard-to-reach areas.For the very hardest to reach premises which are unlikely to receive gigabit-capable connectivity via either a commercial or government funded delivery mechanism, the Government is determined to explore all possible options to improve their broadband connectivity, including solutions such as satellite and fixed wireless access technologies.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Theft

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many of her Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.

Julia Lopez: The following table includes the number of lost/stolen devices in the Department for Digital, Culture Media & Sport (DCMS) in the last five years. 20182019202020212022Laptops3415199174Mobile Phones132931218Memory Sticks00000External Hard Drives00000 All departmental IT has device encryption enabled, at rest and is fully security encrypted, to prevent unauthorised access.The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries.Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated and the contents deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately and remotely locked.There has been no data loss or compromise resulting from these losses.

Broadband: Easington

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve average download speeds in the Easington constituency; and whether she will take steps to increase download speeds in Easington constituency to the (a) North East and (b) UK average.

Julia Lopez: According to the independent website www.thinkbroadband.com, the estimated mean download speed in the Easington constituency during the third quarter of 2022 stood at 90 Mbps. This is slightly lower than the average of 96 Mbps in the North East, and UK average of 95 Mbps. It should be noted that these estimates are derived from crowd-sourced data and that users may not opt for the fastest speeds available when selecting a broadband package.I am pleased to share that almost 99% of premises in the Easington constituency can already access superfast broadband and just over 74% of premises can access a gigabit-capable connection. This is higher than the national averages of over 97% and 72% for superfast and gigabit-capable, respectively.We are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to enable hard-to-reach communities across the UK to access lightning-fast gigabit-capable broadband. Project Gigabit is focused on connecting homes and businesses that are not included in broadband suppliers’ commercial rollout plans.The constituency of Easington is included in Project Gigabit’s North East England regional procurement, which covers up to an estimated 53,000 premises and has an indicative contract value of £82 million. Building Digital UK (BDUK) plans to award a contract between April and May next year.Eligible premises in Easington can also receive gigabit-capable connections through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. We recently announced an increase in the value of these vouchers so that new projects can receive as much as £4,500 towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband in rural and particularly hard-to-reach areas.

Women and Equalities

Guide Dogs

Alberto Costa: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to help (a) improve access for and (b) prevent refusals of services by businesses to people who use guide dogs.

Stuart Andrew: No one should be refused access to businesses or services because they use a guide or other assistance dog.Under the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), businesses and public bodies that provide goods and services to the public must not unlawfully discriminate against disabled people, including those with assistance dogs. The Act places a duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve access to premises, buildings and services. This could include allowing the use of assistance dogs so that disabled customers have the same access to goods and services and are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled customers. Taxi and private hire drivers have a specific duty under the Act to carry guide dogs and assistance dogs at no extra cost to the passenger.The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published guidance for all businesses, including service providers, on this subject. The guidance explains that assistance dogs should be treated as auxiliary aids and not as pets. The guidance is available at: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/assistance-dogs-a-guide-for-all-businesses.pdf and makes clear that businesses and service providers should allow assistance dogs access to buildings where dogs would normally not be permitted whenever this is reasonable.Anybody who thinks that they have been discriminated against in the services offered to them - including where access to an assistance dog has been refused - can take legal action to resolve the issue. Before doing so, they might first find it useful to contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) which provides free bespoke advice and in-depth support to individuals with discrimination concerns via their website - http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com, or by telephone on 0808 800 0082 or by text phone on 0808 800 0084.

Attorney General

Attorney General: Incentives

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December to Question 102837 on incentives, how much the Government Legal Department spent on purchasing non-cash vouchers for staff as reward and recognition bonuses under the Edenred contract in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.

Michael Tomlinson: The Government Legal Department spent the following on non-cash vouchers for staff: 2021- 22 £287,750 2020- 21 £255,300 2019- 20 £274,145 2018- 19 £107,395 2017- 18 £79,527

Attorney General: Accountancy

John Cryer: To ask the Attorney General, what the (a) nature and (b) value was of all contracts, consultancies or other services placed with the accountancy firms (i) Deloitte & Touche, (ii) Ernst & Young, (iii) KPMG and (iv) PricewaterhouseCoopers each year since 2010-11 by the Office.

John Cryer: To ask the Attorney General, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department including predecessor Departments since 2010; for what (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for what (A) periods and (B) tasks.

Michael Tomlinson: There have been no secondments, contracts, consultancies or other services placed with the accountancy firms Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers at the Attorney General’s Office.